Epic Hyperdrive on Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktops

Epic healthcare organizations are facing increasing licensing costs from virtual application and desktop service providers such as Citrix. To reduce costs many organizations are choosing to host the Epic Hyperdrive application directly on endpoint workstations via a full client PC install. As of May 2025, 15% of user sessions across the Epic community are hosted via Hyperdrive on endpoint. While this works well for most internal workstations, external users such as Community Connect organizations or physicians accessing from home don’t have the expertise to install and maintain Hyperdrive which requires continuing to pay for a percentage of Citrix licenses.

Installing Hyperdrive and integrated third parties on Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktops (AVD) is compatible with both internal and external user sessions and has the following additional benefits:

• Built-in, industry leading, security and compliance
• Centralized management
• Consistent user experience
• Autoscaling
• Monitoring and alerting
• Improved scalability
• Pay-per-use model

In collaboration with Microsoft, UST works alongside clients to complete discovery, design, and validation to migrate Epic Hyperdrive and supporting third party applications to AVD.

Discovery: Review the current landscape of internal workstations, Community Connect users, and external access processes. Catalog the various types of internal Epic workstations such as kiosks (shared), PACS, trackboards, etc. and inventory the third-party applications that integrate with Hyperdrive.

Design: Microsoft provides various configurations that allow for designing the Epic on AVD solution that best meets your organization's needs while maximizing cost savings.

• Multi-session (Remote App Streaming), single session (Published Desktop), or hybrid deployment
• Authentication through Entra ID (fka Azure AD) or a hybrid AD FS and Entra ID approach
• Azure Files (Premium or Standard) or Azure NetApp Files for user profile storage

Validation: Inventory your impacted third-party integrations, hyperlinks launched from Epic, video visit workflows, and other processes such as exporting files to a Windows directory, to ensure comprehensive testing is completed to guarantee a seamless transition for end users.

Migration: Design and execute a pilot go-live followed by a site-by-site roll out to minimize impact and ensure seamless adoption.

About UST
UST offers health tech solutions that enhance trust, connectivity, personalization, and efficiency for healthcare and life sciences enterprises. Our human-centered approach creates a more caring and connected future at physical and digital health convergence. Our deep domain experts ensure clients swiftly adapt to evolving tech and regulatory landscapes so they can focus on their core objective of promoting better health and care. Discover our healthcare and life sciences work at ust.health.

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