It used to be that if you needed a remote desktop environment, you’d setup a Windows terminal server in your office or setup some sort of way to remote into an office computer from your laptop or something, usually via a VPN system of some sort. Those systems work, but they’re slowly become a bit of a pain to maintain and keep secure (nevermind the power consumption and overhead of having extra machines in your office just for somebody to remote info). What if you could have a dedicated Windows machine up in the cloud that you could use and access from any computer? Windows 365 is that solution.
Windows 365 is a cloud PC solution based on Azure Virtual Desktop. It’s a monthly subscription-based service (like your current Office 365 subscription) that allows you to access a fully functional Windows desktop from any Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android device with ease from anywhere with an internet connection. This allows you to have all your data and applications up in the cloud instead of stored on a local hard drive.
If you have remote employees at all and want them to use a machine that you can fully control and lock down, Windows 365 might be what you need.
Windows 365 has a bunch of great benefits for your business:
- Access: Windows 365 allows your employees to access Windows desktops anywhere, which is especially handy for remote and travelling employees.
- Scalability: If your needs change or you suddenly have an influx of employees, you can scale up and down the amount and types of Windows 365 desktops you might need.
- Security: There are a lot of security ramifications to running a remote desktop environment from your office. There are also potential security risks when having remote employees access your company’s data and applications on their own machines. Putting the desktop in the cloud allows you to put a more security-conscious setup around it.
- Management: Windows 365 desktop environments are easier to manage because Microsoft does the heavy lifting for you, freeing up you or your IT Department’s time to deal with other items.
- Savings: You’ll need to run the numbers for your situation, but there can be some serious cost savings if this is done right. This will eliminate the need to pay for hardware upgrades and maintenance, and will eliminate the needs to run in-house hardware, saving on power and maintenance.
Windows 365 is available in a variety of configurations, depending on your need. The base configuration that we recommend for very basic uses starts at $41.00/month (2 vCPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage), but if you really wanted to, you could go with the Windows 365 Enterprise GPU Max plan which includes 16 vCPU, 110-GB RAM, 16-GB vRAM, 1 TB Storage (with 352-GB temporary storage) and dedicated graphics for whole lot more (with plans in-between).
We’re currently using Windows 365 for a couple employees and we have some clients who have overseas remote employees that are using Windows 365.
Contact us today if you’re interested in learning more about Windows 365 and how it can help your business.