Hi @ronh,
Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.
Yes, you can configure Microsoft Remote Desktop Access with Azure without needing port forwarding or additional third-party software by utilizing Azure Bastion. Azure Bastion enables secure connections to your virtual machines (VMs) through the Azure portal via a web browser, eliminating the need to expose the VMs to the public internet.
Please ensure that the NSG associated with your VMs allows inbound RDP traffic from the Azure Bastion subnet. By creating an inbound security rule that permits traffic from the Bastion subnet to the RDP port.
Please refer to this for more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bastion/tutorial-create-host-portal
We also have Azure providing support for remote work through its networking services. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/networking/working-remotely-support#extend-employee-connections-to-access-globally-distributed-resources
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