Microsoft's Windows 365 Delivers Cloud PC Access For As Low As $20 Per Month
Back in July, Microsoft announced a cloud-based Windows experience called Windows 365 that would allow anyone on any device to work with Windows. As reported, the service launched on August 2nd, and now pricing is available, ranging from $20 to $162 per user per month, depending on specifications.
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.”
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.