Impressions from Ignite 2025 through an EUC Lens

As expected, Microsoft's keynote address at Ignite 2025 focused on the transformative impact of AI and Agents on our daily work. The entire event was packed with numerous exciting announcements throughout the week. While we cannot possibly cover everything, we would like to highlight the most notable updates from an EUC perspective from the event. For a comprehensive list of all announcements, you can find the link to Microsoft's full list here.

Intune

Check-in latency improvements - Over the past year, Microsoft has made continuous improvements to latency issues, reporting that 99% of notifications reach the device in under 25 minutes, with fully 50% of those arriving in under 5 minutes. No longer should the reports of 2 days to deploy software or push down a patch be a possibility that the admins need to be afraid of.
Security Copilot - One of the biggest changes was that the licensing for Security Copilot is now included for all E5 licenses. Rolling out now to all existing E5 customers over the next few weeks, the existing and newly announced capabilities of Copilot for Intune offer a huge improvement for Intune Admins.
Security Copilot agents - New security copilot agents will have the ability to work alongside admins, automating tasks like never before. For example, you can provide an agent a corporate document that outlines the security policy guidelines for your organization – the agent can read it, create the Intune policy for you with all the relevant settings, and then assign you a task to review and implement it once complete. Another agent, for example, can be used to examine changes being made in a new policy and compare them against all your existing policies, highlighting risks/dependencies/conflicting settings, and so on.
Admin tasks - Admin tasks is a new dashboard designed to be a one-stop shop for all tasks that an Intune Admin needs to keep on top of – everything from multi-admin approvals to requests for elevations, software distributions, alerts and more. This will be a centralized, prioritized list from which you can resolve issues on the spot without needing to navigate multiple admin consoles.

Cloud PC

At Microsoft Ignite 2025, Windows 365 was showcased as the future of cloud-powered end-user computing (EUC), with a series of announcements that highlight its growing role in business continuity, AI innovation, and user experience. From new ways to keep employees connected during disruptions, to delivering individual apps instead of full desktops, to enabling AI agents and Copilot+ features in the cloud, Microsoft is positioning Windows 365 as the platform that bridges devices, datacenters, and intelligent experiences.

Windows 365 Reserve, now in general availability, is designed for business continuity to ensure secure, flexible access to short-term cloud PCs when users' primary devices are unavailable. Employees can securely log in to a Cloud PC from any device, which helps keep them productive during outages, hardware failures, or security events.
Windows 365 Cloud Apps – Also now generally available, allows for individual business applications to be made available to users with Windows 365 instead of a full desktop, saving time and cost. This is in addition to the new User Experience Sync, which saves user preferences, accessibility settings, and app customizations across sessions.
Windows 365 Link device - Microsoft has announced new features now available or coming soon, including out-of-box-environment (OOBE) support for pairing Bluetooth keyboards and mice, support for Cisco Webex and Zoom offload, and smart card redirection.
Windows 365 for Agents – Is a new Cloud PC offering designed specifically for AI agents. It enables agents to securely "check out" a Cloud PC running Windows or Linux, interact with applications, automate workflows, and run securely under enterprise policies without requiring local infrastructure
Windows 365 AI-enabled Cloud PCs – AI-enabled Cloud PCs bring Copilot+ experiences, such as advanced Windows search and "Click to Do," directly from the cloud, without requiring local NPUs. This makes next-gen AI productivity features accessible on any device connected to Windows 365, with enterprise-grade security and management.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)

While Windows 365 captured much of the spotlight at Ignite 2025, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) also received major updates that reinforce its position as the flexible modern VDI platform for enterprises with diverse infrastructure, regulatory, and performance needs. Microsoft unveiled new capabilities that extend AVD beyond the cloud into hybrid deployments, along with significant enhancements to connection reliability and user experience, demonstrating Microsoft's commitment to making AVD a powerful option for enterprises with diverse infrastructure, regulatory, and performance needs.

AVD for hybrid environments

Now in limited preview, Microsoft announced new hybrid deployment options for AVD. Going beyond using an Azure local certified node, enterprises with regulatory, latency, or infrastructure requirements can deploy AVD to on-premises Arc-enabled servers.

Hybrid flexibility - Organizations can deploy session hosts across Azure and on-premises environments, tailoring infrastructure to business needs.
Cost efficiency - Allows businesses to leverage existing hardware investments while scaling workloads into Azure when demand spikes.
Performance optimization - Reduces latency by placing session hosts closer to end users when needed.

RDP Multipath

RDP Multipath is now generally available, automatically improving AVD and W365 connections by continuously monitoring multiple network paths and dynamically selecting the most reliable one.

Enhanced reliability: Multiple backup paths remain on standby, reducing session drops and interruptions.
Improved user experience: Provides smoother, more consistent sessions for remote workers, especially in environments with variable network quality.

Ecosystem partners

We would be remiss if we didn't at least briefly mention some of the key Microsoft and WWT partners who made significant announcements at Ignite 2025. Here are a few that were highlighted during sessions and on the massive The Hub show floor:

Lakeside Software

Lakeside Software used Microsoft Ignite 2025 to unveil SysTrack AI, its new Azure-native platform that brings autonomous digital employee experience (DEX) management to every device. Built on decades of telemetry data, SysTrack AI combines real-time diagnostics with natural language reasoning to help IT teams and end users quickly identify and resolve performance issues. By integrating seamlessly with Microsoft ecosystems, such as Teams and ServiceNow, the solution empowers organizations to deliver faster fixes, reduce escalations, and optimize productivity across their digital workplaces.

Liquidware

Liquidware's digital workspace management solutions extend Microsoft AVD, Windows 365, and Intune to deliver what admins truly need: better visibility, stronger management, and enhanced employee experience at scale. At the show, they highlighted their strong partnership with Microsoft and shared their mission to empower modern workspaces. From modernizing policy management to streamlining app delivery and real-time support, they help organizations extend, enhance and empower their digital workspace journey.

At Microsoft Ignite, Login VSI unveiled Hydra 2.0 with new support for Windows 365 Cloud PCs giving IT teams dashboards, Cloud PC controls, and migration tools to test and shape future capabilities. In parallel, Login VSI partnered with Microsoft to deliver hybrid AVD support via Azure Arc, bridging legacy on-premises hypervisors like VMware, Nutanix, and Hyper-V with Azure Virtual Desktop. Together, these updates extend Hydra's automation and management capabilities across cloud and on-premises environments, enabling unified visibility, streamlined migration, and cost-optimized control for enterprises modernizing their digital workspaces.

Nerdio

Nerdio unveiled its new capability for hybrid Azure Virtual Desktop environments, bringing unified management to both cloud and on-premises environments. The partnership streamlines deployment and lifecycle automation, enabling organizations to modernize their legacy VDI while meeting compliance and sovereignty requirements. This enables IT teams to deliver scalable, secure and flexible digital workspaces across a new range of on-premises hypervisors from the same powerful interface for AVD and Windows 365.

Rimo 3

Rimo3, in partnership with Microsoft, announced their Intune Migration Program, designed to accelerate SCCM-to-Intune transitions. The program leverages Rimo3's automation platform to streamline application packaging, validation, and patch testing, cutting migration timelines from months to days. By combining Microsoft's cloud-native Intune capabilities with Rimo3's advanced bulk operations and unified reporting, the partnership helps enterprises modernize endpoint management with greater speed and confidence.

Final thoughts

Ignite 2025 underscored how AI and cloud innovation are redefining end-user computing. From Intune to Windows 365 and AVD, the momentum is clear: secure, intelligent and flexible workspaces are no longer a vision; they're here. As these capabilities roll out, now is the time to explore how they fit into your EUC strategy.