Windows 365 is now live and in market. Tiers run from as low as $24 a month to as high as $162 a month, depending on the configuration. The cheapest setup is one vCPU, 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and 12GB of bandwidth, and the most expensive is eight vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, with a selection in between.
Of note, Microsoft will offer this in a self-service model starting August 14th.
And a heads up to administrators – Microsoft Defender and Edge on Windows 10 will soon automatically block potentially unwanted appications by default, starting this month. Disabled prior by deful, this will switch to on by default.
Here’s what I think providers are missing from the equation – while yes, more expensive than just building your own hardware.. the service includes cost around security setup and management software… meaning this takes away from you, not your customer.
Nerdio has a pretty good breakdown on the service, particularly comparing it to Azure Virtual Desktop. That’s a more relevant comparison with just a desktop.
My take is that the real missing component for providers is they are focused too much on what they want versus what the customer wants. This isn’t ALL use cases… but there are a number that are quite strong here. I’m pretty bullish on this as a component of the future of IT service delivery…. And I note prices only generally come down.
Edit: Fixed “Microsoft 365” to “Windows 365”