Microsoft has been working on this for a while, and now it’s generally available. Basically, it’s your desktop in the cloud. Instead of VPN’ing into work, or using remote desktop to control a computer at your office, you can access these resources hosted in Microsoft’s datacenters. This may simplify things for companies moving to a permanent virtual workplace, getting rid of offices, and still using legacy software or systems.
We suspect most of our clients will need the Enterprise version, and adopting this technology will require re-architecting and rethinking some of our legacy ways of computing. Of course, none of this is needed if you are already using cloud-based software or file storage such as Microsoft 365 and SharePoint – but if you have multi-user accounting systems that are on-premise, CAD systems using files off of a server, or other legacy systems – and want to move to a cloud model – this technology can simplify that transition.
Pricing depends on performance requirements – it starts around $50/mo per user for a mid-level system plus implementation and management costs. On the surface, it appears to be cheaper than rolling your own solution for hosting remote desktops with an RDS server. Let us know if you’d like to discuss Windows 365 for your business.