Why Remote Desktop Services Isn’t Going Away Any Time Soon

Recently I’ve heard industry scuttlebutt that has people freaking out and thinking that Remote Desktop Services is going away. I think a lot of this has to due with Microsoft’s constant marketing emphasis on Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365. The lack of recent marketing around core Remote Desktop Services fuels worry, and unfortunately when people worry, they often don’t make smart decisions. So the point of my video and blog article below is to dissect what is going on around the Microsoft Remote Desktop Services ecosystem using a little logic and reason, so you and your boss don’t panic and jump to a new remoting platform that could seriously impact your budget in a negative way.

Blog Chatter – What About Windows Terminal Server – Is It Dead?

One of the recent blog articles I read on this subject was at Gunter Born’s Born City blog, which has excellent coverage of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and other Windows topics. Gunter asks “What about Windows Terminal Server, is it dead?” In this blog article, he touches upon several items generating fear among RDS users, the biggest being whether or not Microsoft 365 Apps support will be continued for RDS past 2026.

Given that I’ve been working with RDS now for over 20 years, and given that as a Microsoft MVP the past 7 years I’ve had a catbird seat watching what Microsoft’s been doing with their remoting strategy in Azure, let me now weigh in with some thoughts as to the future of Remote Desktop Services, Microsoft 365 Apps support, and so on. It’s critical that you don’t fall for the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) being pushed from many players in this ecosystem. So let’s dive in and dissect what’s really going on right now in 2023.

Fact 1 – Microsoft RDS on Windows Server 2022 Will Be Around and Supported Until October 2031

First of all, Remote Desktop Services is here to stay until October 2031 at an absolute minimum, as that’s the end of life for extended support on Server 2022. And I suspect it will be even longer than that, because if you fire up the latest Insider Preview Build of Server vNext, you can still build a Remote Desktop Services deployment with absolutely no issue. Hell, if Microsoft still plans to deliver a non-cloud version of Microsoft Exchange in 2025, I think it’s a very safe bet that on-premises RDS in Windows Server will stick around as well.

Fact 2: Many RDS Use Cases (SaaS Apps Delivered via RDS, Line-of-Business Apps Delivered via RDS) Have ZERO Dependencies on M365 Apps

Believe it or not, there are tons of organizations and SaaS vendors that use RDS to deliver their applications to their customers and employees who do not run Office apps on RDS at all. I’ve worked with many of them, and some of them deliver apps to over 20000 users from massive RDS deployments. Those companies are not going to just eat the cost of lifting and shifting everything up to Azure if they don’t need to. They can run good ole classic RDS in private datacenters for another decade or more without worries.

A Brief History of the “Will We or Won’t We Support Microsoft 365 Apps on Remote Desktop Services” Game

Now, let’s pivot back to hosters, managed service providers, and customers that use RDS with Microsoft 365 Apps. For the past 5 years, Microsoft has been playing games with Microsoft 365 Apps support guarantees on Microsoft RDS. The cynic in me speculates that this is done on purpose to engender insecurity around the RDS ecosystem, in a hope to move people over to AVD and Windows 365 in Azure. All the way back in 2019, Microsoft initially didn’t offer support for Office 365 Apps on Windows Server 2019 RDS. Then customers kicked up a stink, Microsoft relented in July of 2019, and now those 365 Apps are supported on Server 2019 RDS until October 2025.

Similarly, when Server 2022 came out, Microsoft said they were not supporting Microsoft 365 Apps on Server 2022. Yet again, customers and hosters raised hell, Microsoft relented, and now Office 365 Apps are supported on Server 2022 until October 2026.

Do you see the pattern of behavior here? Microsoft releases a new server operating system, attempts to not support M365 Apps, then relents after customer displeasure. Given that they only extended official M365 Apps support another year, into 2026, the new game Microsoft may be playing is shortening the pledged M365 Apps support timeline in an attempt to make customers purchase RDS CALs more frequently, by tying M365 Apps support to a new version of Windows Server.

The EU Has Microsoft’s Business Practices Around Azure in its Crosshairs

Of course, in regards to continuing to provide support for hosting M365 Apps in RDS, Microsoft has a sword of Damocles hanging over it in the form of EU regulators that are scrutinizing their business practices and licensing rules around apps and services hosted in Azure, as compared to apps and services hosted in other clouds and datacenters.

In May of 2022, due to class action lawsuits filed against Microsoft at the European Commission by other European hosters and cloud service providers, Microsoft relented on some of its non-Azure licensing rules. As a result, Brad Smith stated that Microsoft would enable and help European Cloud Providers to host Microsoft products on their own infrastructure.”

But now in May of this year, Paul Thurott reports that the EU has launched a separate antitrust investigation into Microsoft Azure and its business practices. Suffice it to say, the EU has a massive spotlight shining on Microsoft business behavior within Azure, which I think will pump the brakes on any Microsoft attempts to remove M365 Apps support from RDS in the near future.

Fact 3: Microsoft Still Makes a Ton of Money From RDS CAL Licensing, Especially From Other EUC Vendors Like Citrix, Parallels, and VMWare

Finally, the biggest reason I don’t think classic RDS is going away any time soon is simply the billions of dollars Microsoft makes by selling RDS CALs not only to Microsoft RDS customers, but Citrix customers, Parallels RAS customers, VMWare Horizon customers, and any other end user computing platform that sits on top of RDS and requires RDS CALs in addition the other vendor’s licensing. I don’t think Microsoft would want to prematurely shunt off that revenue stream, even if they do want to try and drag everyone into Azure in the meantime.

My Conclusion: Classic RDS Will Be Around For Another Decade, Most Likely With M365 App Support As Well

So, in conclusion, I think classic RDS is here to stay for another decade, and I think M365 Apps support on RDS outside of Azure will also remain supported for another decade, albeit perhaps with the caveat that you may need to upgrade RDS and RDS CALs to newer Windows Server versions more frequently. What do you think? Post your comments below here on my blog, or at this post on my RDPHard Twitter feed.