Azure RemoteApp is going away. New Purchases in portal are now stopped

Today I got an email saying "Action recommended: Deleting unnecessary RemoteApp collections can save you money". This email is also a reminder from Microsoft that the RemoteApp is going away. We need to plan for the migration for the existing RemoteApps to other platforms.

What this means

This means various things to you. Most prominently:

• Over the next year, the support for Remote App is going away
• You need to plan and migrate the existing RemoteApp application to other platforms
• New Purchases in the Azure portal for RemoteApp are no longer available

When is the service coming to Stop

The service will have support through August 31st, 2017. That's when this service will come to a stop. New service purchase was stopped effective October 1st, 2016.

What are my Options

You have various options for migration. The option being recommended by Microsoft is using "Citrix XenApp express". In fact, Microsoft is partnering up with Citrix on this. This service is not yet available and is currently under development. As this will be the native option in Azure this will be your best bet once it is announced. You can learn more about this solution here on Citrix site: Citrix and Microsoft

The second option is to use Remote Desktop Services (RDS) deployed on Azure IaaS. This means to set up the infrastructure yourself and then deploy and host the RDS solution on that infrastructure in Azure. You can know more about the steps here: Host desktops and apps in Remote Desktop Services on Azure

Another option is to use hosted solutions from various 3rd party vendors. You can find such solution from various partners from the Azure marketplace. You can also read and get to know the complete list of these hosting partners here: RDS - Partners for hosting desktops and apps

In conclusion, I will recommend to wait and look out for Citrix XenApp express solution. If you need new remote application solutions then you need to either deploy your own solution or use one of the hosted solutions by 3rd party vendors. You can read more about the official announcement here: Application Remoting and the Cloud