Microsoft's Windows 365 Delivers Cloud PC Access For As Low As $20 Per Month

Windows 365 sits somewhere between full infrastructure as a service, like AWS, and platform as a service, like Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. It allows businesses to easily deploy and scale a Windows environment up to 300 seats in Windows 365 Business and from 300 users to infinity with Windows 365 Enterprise. For each end-user, as Christiaan Brinkhoff explains in a blog post, “It is your personalized desktop, apps, data, settings, and content streamed securely from the cloud directly to your device.”
We can now finally see what pricing looks like for this service, and there is definitely some sticker shock. At the lowest tier, you can get one vCPU, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage for $20 if you are an Enterprise customer or $24 if you are a Business customer. However, you can save $4 on any configuration if you qualify for the Windows Hybrid Benefit. This benefit or discount is available to Windows 365 Business customers who have endpoint devices with valid Windows 10 Pro licenses which are then tied to the Windows 365 Business license.
At the high end of the spectrum, customers can select up to 8 vCPUs, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of RAM for a considerable $162 per user per month at maximum. Again, if you qualify for the Hybrid Benefit as a Business customer, you can save $4 here too.

Though all the prices may seem high, this is not a service for everyone and every business. Moreover, there are only some use cases for this, so IT administrators should assess their needs and wants before jumping into Windows 365. However, if you do jump in and buy services in volume, Microsoft likely offers pretty good discounts, which they would not show by default for business reasons. Perhaps the Redmond, Washington-based company will also offer a cheaper, more consumer-oriented version of Windows 365 in the future, so stay tuned to HotHardware as we keep an eye out for that.