What is the role of Azure Bastion in Azure Virtual Desktop?

Azure Bastion plays a critical role in Azure Virtual Desktop by providing secure RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and SSH (Secure Shell) connectivity to your virtual machines without the need to expose them to the public internet. This enhanced security is achieved by allowing users to connect directly through the Azure portal, thereby minimizing attack vectors and ensuring that the virtual machines do not have public IP addresses.

This approach significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access and offers a more streamlined connection process, enabling users to access their desktops or applications more safely. Additionally, Azure Bastion ensures that security updates and management of RDP and SSH traffic occur within the secure boundaries of the Azure network.

The other options focus on aspects that aren't specific to the unique capabilities of Azure Bastion. For instance, while optimizing application performance may be an overall goal of cloud services, it’s not the direct responsibility of Azure Bastion. Similarly, managing resource allocation deals primarily with Azure Resource Manager and related services, and enhancing local data storage capabilities pertains to storage solutions rather than access management. Hence, the correct choice aptly reflects the primary purpose of Azure Bastion in the context of Azure Virtual Desktop.