the verge Microsoft puts PCs in the cloud with Windows 365

[UltraMega]

Quote

Microsoft is putting Windows in the cloud. Windows 365 is a new service that will let businesses access Cloud PCs from anywhere, streaming a version of Windows 10 or Windows 11 in a web browser. While virtualization and remote access to PCs has existed for more than a decade, Microsoft is betting on Windows 365 to offer Cloud PCs to businesses just as they shift toward a mix of office and remote work.

Microsoft puts PCs in the cloud with Windows 365

WWW.THEVERGE.COM

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Windows 365 lets you access Windows anywhere.

 

Not the most exciting news, but makes sense that Microsoft would do this by now.

 

 

[GanjaSMK]

Just read this article. 

 

It's a great option for many situations and circumstances - but - is there a thin enough client that this makes sense on in a corporate and/or small business setting? 

 

It'd be amazing if this service offered peak potential on something like a super-light, ultra-thin, wifi/mobile 10-15" tablet. Still you'd need a bootable web-browser as a 'base' OS for this.

 

Interesting none the less.

[UltraMega]

2 hours ago, GanjaSMK said:

Just read this article. 

 

It's a great option for many situations and circumstances - but - is there a thin enough client that this makes sense on in a corporate and/or small business setting? 

 

It'd be amazing if this service offered peak potential on something like a super-light, ultra-thin, wifi/mobile 10-15" tablet. Still you'd need a bootable web-browser as a 'base' OS for this.

 

Interesting none the less.

I'd guess that it would be functionally similar to xbox game streaming, but instead of a game it's a virtual PC stream. 

Edited July 15, 2021 by UltraMega

[Mistio]

Going full circle I see. 

In the 80s and 90s, enterprises had terminals which enabled them to connect to room sized machines located miles away. 

Now we bring it all back :). 

 

[Diffident]

I'm guessing this is also Microsoft's endgame for home users, subscription based computing.

[tictoc]

2 hours ago, Diffident said:

I'm guessing this is also Microsoft's endgame for home users, subscription based computing.

 

It's worked well enough for Microsoft Office, that there was speculation that Office 2019 would be the last stand alone version of Office, but almost certainly Office 2021 will be the last version of Office with a standalone license and not a subscription.

[Supercrumpet]

I can also see applications for this with users that prefer Macbooks for whatever reason, but need to use some programs that are only available on Windows. For businesses, that may not be as common as for individual users, but like the article mentions it's not all that dissimilar to Citrix, which I've seen used like that quite a bit recently.

[ENTERPRISE]

I struggle to see the cost benefit to this so far as a simple office setup. I would rather have a larger initial spend to get some cheaper desktops and use them for time to come VS paying for a subscription service.

 

On the flip side. If you required a high end PC environment, say for engineering, media production etc but couldn't afford to pay for several high end machines. Then a subscription model for access to high performance computing makes sense. All you would need to do is buy some basic  office PC's in order to access the cloud computing.