Windows 365 Hybrid Windows - Cloud PC Could it work for your firm?
Microsoft made a big announcement yesterday their Inspire Event. Essentially Cloud based PCs you can connect to and use easily. Perfect for remote workers, new starters, and users whose kit needs an upgrade.
It doesn’t matter what device you use to connect, or what the specification of that device is. So, no more hardware upgrades on your local kit. It will run it on any Mac, PC, or your even your iPad, or Phone.
You connect to it via a browser, and it streams your desktop to you. Its persistent so you can leave your apps running and just disconnect and reconnect when you feel like it. Sounds a lot like remote desktop doesn’t it. However, there are some big differences.
1. You don’t need to get rid of your local servers straight away if you don’t want to. (Although there are big benefits in doing so) Windows 365 allows you to connect to your on-premises network connections. Meaning you can run all of the office-based applications as if you were in the Office immediately. So, you can have a hybrid network some cloud-based PCs for remote workers some on premise for people who always work in the office. You can have a hybrid approach and not a big bang. Firms who have struggled with remote desktop to local servers during the Pandemic could benefit by using Windows 365 it places less of burden on your local hardware as it is only making a data connection to the server and not running applications like a session host does.
2. All updates and all security patches are managed by Microsoft you just have to connect and cope with the authentication options. Which should reduce your support costs. It also allows users to easily and securely use their own device. They can connect using their own Pc if they like as all data remains secure on the Cloud PC.
3. It has better security than most on premise systems including, multi factor authentication, all data is encrypted in transit, and at rest. You can even control if users can download data from their Cloud PC to their local device or not.
4. Pricing yet to be announced but unlike Azure it’s a fixed price per user per month not a consumption model. Which has been an historic blocker for many small firms who want to control IT spend better.
If you would like to find out more about how it might work for you contact us we will be happy to give you some advice on what might work for you.
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