Packaging Visual Studio with Cloudpaging Provides a Seamless Solution for Developers
Can You Package Visual Studio with Cloudpaging? Yes, You Can!
One of the most common questions we get when discussing the unparallelled rate of compatibility provided with Cloudpaging application containers is, “can it handle Visual Studio?”
It’s understandable why this question comes up. Virtualizing large, complex applications like Visual Studio has historically been a major challenge. I recall working on an App-V deployment for a bank in 2009, where everything came to a halt when we attempted to sequence and deliver developer applications. App-V struggled with Visual Studio. Even when it worked with other tools, developers were reluctant to use them.
The reason? Application files were isolated and inaccessible, making developers feel restricted, as though they weren’t trusted with full control over their workspace. Virtualization solutions of old also caused performance concerns with large applications performing sluggishly on launch, which set a poor first impression.
This is where Cloudpaging excels when others fall short. With Cloudpaging’s granular isolation controls, you can package and deploy even the most intricate software suites – including Visual Studio – without sacrificing functionality, performance, or interoperability between tools/applications. This ensures developers can access application files as if the software were installed locally, without compromising security.
The Advantages of Cloudpaging for Visual Studio Deployment
Dynamic Provisioning of Visual Studio to Developer Desktops
Using Cloudpaging to containerize Visual Studio brings significant benefits to organizations managing developer environments. Developer tools can be dynamically delivered to any desktop – including non-persistent environments – without the need for lengthy installations. This removes the complexity of embedding these tools into virtual desktop images or relying on installation managers each time a new developer desktop is provisioned.
Check out the video below from our recent webinar with Microsoft, Reduce AVD Host Pools: More Apps, Less Downtime with App Attach and Cloudpager, demonstrating Visual Studio being deployed via Cloudpaging containers to Azure Virtual Desktop (via Cloudpager’s App attach in AVD integration).
Enhanced Resource Efficiency
Another key advantage is resource efficiency. By creating separate containers tailored to specific workflows, organizations can optimize application delivery and reduce unnecessary resource consumption on developer desktops. As shown in the video, Cloudpaging allows for fast, consistent access to essential development tools without bloating systems with unnecessary components.
Reduce Image Management Requirements
During a recent demonstration, a large Financial Services provider explained Visual Studio is one of the key drivers of desktop image bloat and administrative overhead. At the moment, they are installing Visual Studio directly into their developer-specific image. This creates a few different problems:
- The sheer size of Visual Studio and its respective extensions requires their desktop images to be more than 60GB. The need for custom images drastically increases storage costs for cloud-hosted desktop environments.
- No application update is simple. The most minor change required to applications in this image becomes extremely cumbersome, time-consuming, and costly to execute.
By virtualizing applications per user, with the flexibility to auto-deploy applications or provide self-service access in an application storefront, you can abstract Visual Studio out of your desktop images. This reduces application conflicts, accelerates deployment times, and reduces costs (reduction in desktop image size and administrative overhead).
Containerize Visual Studio with Cloudpaging for the Best Developer Experience
Developers are not standard enterprise end-users. They rely on large, complex software suites that integrate with various applications and need access across multiple desktops throughout the development lifecycle. Traditionally, delivering these tools in virtual desktop environments, such as Pooled Desktops in Azure Virtual Desktop, required multiple host pools and custom images—costly and time-consuming solutions. Traditional application virtualization solutions were unable to successfully deliver suites like Visual Studio.
Cloudpaging changes the game by providing a streamlined, efficient, and high-performance way to deliver development applications. Whether your team needs Visual Studio or any other complex software, Cloudpaging ensures seamless, scalable deployment – allowing developers to focus on coding instead of installation headaches.
Witness Why Visual Studio is Better When Containerized with Cloudpaging
Want to see the power of containerizing Visual Studio in action? Request an on-demand version of our webinar with Microsoft, including deployment of Visual Studio to Azure Virtual Desktop, or request a live demonstration with our Solutions Architects at numecent.com/demo.
