Thursday, July 15th 2021
Microsoft Announces Windows 365 Cloud Streaming Service
Microsoft today announced Windows 365, a cloud service that introduces a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11 (when it becomes available) to businesses of all sizes. Windows 365 takes the operating system to the Microsoft cloud, streaming the full Windows experience — apps, data and settings — to personal or corporate devices. Secure by design and built with the principles of Zero Trust, Windows 365 secures and stores information in the cloud, not on the device, providing a secure, productive experience for workers from interns and contractors to software developers and industrial designers. Windows 365 also creates a new hybrid personal computing category called Cloud PC, which uses both the power of the cloud and the capabilities of the device to provide a full, personalized Windows experience. The announcement represents a groundbreaking development as organizations around the world grapple with the best ways to facilitate hybrid work models where employees are both on-site and distributed across the globe.
A new computing paradigm for hybrid work
As the pandemic begins to ease in parts of the world, a new way of working is emerging, transformed by virtual processes and remote collaboration. In this more distributed environment, employees need access to corporate resources across locations and devices — and with cybersecurity threats on the rise, securing those resources is paramount.
Windows 365 helps employers solve challenges they've faced since long before the pandemic. Workers expect greater flexibility and more options to work from different locations, while still ensuring the security of the organization's data. Seasonal workers can cycle on and off teams without the logistical challenges of issuing new hardware or securing personal devices — allowing the organization to scale for busy periods more efficiently and securely. And companies can easily ensure specialized workers in creative, analytics, engineering or scientific roles have greater compute power and secure access to critical applications that they need.
Versatile, simple, secure: the transformational impact of Windows 365
By building on the power of the Windows operating system and the strength of the cloud, Windows 365 gives any organization greater peace of mind in three key ways:
For decades, Microsoft partners have been at the center of how Microsoft delivers technologies and business transformation to customers around the world. The depth of Microsoft's cloud offerings and technology portfolio gives partners the power to build innovative, industry-specific solutions. Windows 365 will allow partners to continue to make more possible.
From systems integrators to managed service providers to independent software vendors (ISVs) to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the new Cloud PC category creates opportunity for Microsoft partners to deliver new Windows experiences in the cloud.
Organizations will look to systems integrators and managed service providers to help them get the most out of their entire Windows estate. ISVs can continue to build Windows apps and now deliver them in the cloud to help businesses work in new ways as they continue to digitally transform. And OEMs gain an opportunity to integrate Windows 365 into their broad portfolio of services alongside their devices' robust features and secure hardware.
Availability
Windows 365 will be generally available to businesses of all sizes starting on Aug. 2, 2021.
Announcement Video
Source:
Microsoft
As the pandemic begins to ease in parts of the world, a new way of working is emerging, transformed by virtual processes and remote collaboration. In this more distributed environment, employees need access to corporate resources across locations and devices — and with cybersecurity threats on the rise, securing those resources is paramount.
Windows 365 helps employers solve challenges they've faced since long before the pandemic. Workers expect greater flexibility and more options to work from different locations, while still ensuring the security of the organization's data. Seasonal workers can cycle on and off teams without the logistical challenges of issuing new hardware or securing personal devices — allowing the organization to scale for busy periods more efficiently and securely. And companies can easily ensure specialized workers in creative, analytics, engineering or scientific roles have greater compute power and secure access to critical applications that they need.
Versatile, simple, secure: the transformational impact of Windows 365
By building on the power of the Windows operating system and the strength of the cloud, Windows 365 gives any organization greater peace of mind in three key ways:
- Powerful: With instant-on boot to their personal Cloud PC, users can stream all their applications, tools, data and settings from the cloud across any device. Windows 365 provides the full PC experience in the cloud. The cloud also provides versatility in processing power and storage, enabling IT to scale up or down, based on their needs. With a choice of either Windows 10 or Windows 11 (once it is generally available later in 2021), organizations can choose the Cloud PC that works for them with per-user per-month pricing.
- Simple: With a Cloud PC, users can log in and pick back up where they left off across devices, providing a simple and familiar Windows experience delivered by the cloud. For IT, Windows 365 also simplifies deployment, updates and management — and unlike other solutions, Windows 365 doesn't require any virtualization experience. With Windows 365 optimized for the endpoint, IT can easily procure, deploy and manage Cloud PCs for their organization just as they manage physical PCs through Microsoft Endpoint Manager. Small and midsize businesses can purchase Windows 365 directly or through a cloud service provider, and set up their organization with Cloud PCs with just a few clicks. Microsoft also continues to innovate in Azure Virtual Desktop for those organizations with deep virtualization experience that want more customization and flexibility options.
- Secure: Windows 365 is secure by design, leveraging the power of the cloud and the principles of Zero Trust. Information is secured and stored in the cloud, not on the device. Always up to date and building on the strength of rich Microsoft security capabilities and baselines, Windows 365 simplifies security and recommends the best security settings for the environment at hand.
For decades, Microsoft partners have been at the center of how Microsoft delivers technologies and business transformation to customers around the world. The depth of Microsoft's cloud offerings and technology portfolio gives partners the power to build innovative, industry-specific solutions. Windows 365 will allow partners to continue to make more possible.
From systems integrators to managed service providers to independent software vendors (ISVs) to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the new Cloud PC category creates opportunity for Microsoft partners to deliver new Windows experiences in the cloud.
Organizations will look to systems integrators and managed service providers to help them get the most out of their entire Windows estate. ISVs can continue to build Windows apps and now deliver them in the cloud to help businesses work in new ways as they continue to digitally transform. And OEMs gain an opportunity to integrate Windows 365 into their broad portfolio of services alongside their devices' robust features and secure hardware.
Availability
Windows 365 will be generally available to businesses of all sizes starting on Aug. 2, 2021.
Announcement Video
29 Comments on Microsoft Announces Windows 365 Cloud Streaming Service
Pricing will be key, as well as if I can dynamically add and remove licenses based on users timing out (rather than buying instances for every user who may use a cloud desktop occasionally).
1. We at work run our workstation OS on a company server through Citrix. Even that's laggy with a Gbps connection. I imagine doing the same through the ancient UK network is pretty much unusable.
2. Giving up control over my OS, and being entirely dependent on internet connection? No, thanks.
Microsoft have that in spades, I can't argue with that statement. :roll:
Welcome to the forums :)
Same way "smart" cars consequentially make personal car ownership obsolete. This celebratory tone of the press release is only a celebration of the corporations taking over what little freedoms the pesants have left.
Hint: This was Microsofts and the whole silicon valley vision all along, they talk about it all the time anyway, what does the future bring what does the future hold, it's nothing more than propaganda for what they want the future to be and are deciding it for you. So this is really nothing new, all of this always-in-the-effing-cloud was planned long ahead.
You guys think you'll have freedom on Linux? Not so fast, that place is also heavily under a cult and subcults with heavy university influence, hardly a sprawling place of original and creative grassroots advanced home users, you'll have to look quite a bit deeper to find them, and most linux users on the mainstream distros are mostly mainstream users who don't really do anything cool or advanced with the OS anyway, so much effort goes into GUIs and making things look pretty for moves and music, that's such a waste of time IMO. There's a lot of basic standard things that I can do on Windows for work purposes that are literally impossible on linux, some programs that I on windows think of them are like air and water just don't even exist there, so I had a lot of heavy WTF moments, but it depends on the distro and it's GUI, Linux really isn't what I imagined to be at all, all the videos, images, descriptions out there give you a false sense of what Linux is like, until you try it.
So Linux community doesn't share the same mindset in many ways of what many advanced Windows users share, so there's going to be disagreements, but users with multiple OS and who used Win and Linux for many years are the key people to bridge this gap, you simply want to get sometihng done and use sense, you're not playing a fanboy and you simpyl use the pros of both systems and that's it, that's the most optimal approach, there's no need to fanboy a particular system, but there are philosophical and ideological rules as to how things should work, and if something is easier and better ... but it has some other things then no, I don't want the convenience of a cloud system, I can handle being my own administrator my self, and hopefully enough people stand up again this corporate takeover.
Literally in the news I saw today, but it's been mentioned before, is this Blackrock group buying up suburb homes with overpaying them:
www.foxnews.com/media/blackrock-investment-firms-killing-dream-home-ownership
www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/06/blackrock_owns_americas_homes__and_a_whole_lot_else.html
This is literally the best standup comedy sentence ever:I laughed and I rolled when I read the last part ... industrial espionage wohooo! Yeah other competing companies and industry will put their top secret research onto microsoft servers? But yeah Microsoft thinks of everyone else as dirty pesants who believe everything including other corporations, unfortunately I'm afraid even the other corporates are dumb enough to play along with this nonsense.
On the first level: Yeah it may be secure from everyone else, except Microsoft.
On the second level: MS may keep their word, not use it, officially, but what about rogue employees.
Get ready for the next level!!...:rolleyes:
If it works well.
-Klause Schwab, World Economic Forum 2020