The benefits you can achieve using App-V can sound a lot more interesting for most environments, but how can you maintain those benefits where you already have a Remote Desktop Services platform deployed?
If you already have users accessing virtual desktops from RDS sessions or Hyper-V virtual machines in VDI, adding a new layer of complexity with App-V should be carefully analyzed before any implementation.
Here are some reasons to use App-V along with RDS:
Delivering applications to the RDS servers using App-V simplifies the time and effort to maintain these servers. Users can directly use the App-V RDS Client installed on the RDS server which will be in charge of receiving App-V packages.
App-V removes the need to install applications on servers. RDS requires an existing and installed application on a server for publishing it, making this a risk you have to accept; using App-V, you just need to deliver these applications to the servers without installing any of them.
You can optimize resource utilization in your RDS platform. In complex scenarios, you may need to publish incompatible applications using RDS. For example, HR members need Microsoft Office 2007 and management is using Microsoft Office 2010; for this, you need at least two separate RDS servers to install both of them.
The App-V RDS client can be installed on one RDS server, from which you can deploy both incompatible applications and clients will still be using only one server.
Simplified applications deployment. Installing applications in RDS is a disruptive process; users must log off and a server reboot may be required as well. Using RDS with App-V, the process can be transparent for users, including updating an application.
Improving profiles experience. You can avoid the use of roaming profiles for users; App-V supports redirection for application settings. You can force mandatory profiles (user environment modification not possible by users) for RDS clients, while redirecting App-V applications data and settings to keep these changes consistent.
Using small foot-print images in VDI environments. Providing virtual machines for users' desktop environments can be really expensive in terms of storage, combining VDI with App-V can guarantee simple and small operating system images, while providing virtualized applications to complement the environment.
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) represents one of the most attractive solutions in virtual environments, and there are a lot of resources about it from Microsoft:
Deploying Personal Virtual Desktops by Using RemoteApp and Desktop Connection Step-by-Step Guide (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd941616(WS.0).aspx)
Deploying Virtual Desktop Pools by Using RemoteApp and Desktop Connection Step-by-Step Guide (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd772706(WS.10).aspx)