Tuesday, August 3rd 2021

Microsoft Unveils Pricing for Cloud Streaming Windows 365 Service

by
Uskompuf
 Discuss (34 Comments)
Microsoft has recently launched their Windows 365 cloud streaming service that allows businesses to stream a Windows 10 or 11 machine over the internet. The Windows 365 service will initially be available in 12 different tiers with the cheapest offering 1 virtual core, 2 GB RAM, and 64 GB storage for 24 USD/month while the most expensive option at 162 USD/month includes 8 virtual cores, 32 GB RAM, and 512 GB storage. Microsoft is also offering up to a 16% monthly discount to businesses that already use Windows 10 Pro on their devices. These machines are not intended to be used for network heavy applications like server hosting and Microsoft has implemented strong outbound data limits. The Windows 365 cloud PC can be accessed from any device with the Microsoft Remote Desktop app or a HTML5 compatible browser.
Source: Microsoft

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34 Comments on Microsoft Unveils Pricing for Cloud Streaming Windows 365 Service

#1
W1zzard
lol this is crazy expensive
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#2
kayjay010101
$24/month for a literally unusable experience, thanks Microsoft :)
Like, 2GB of RAM in W10? That's not usable. And a single vCore? Really?
Who is this aimed at?
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#3
silentbogo
Holy crap. The lowest one is at least twice as expensive as the current rolling market price for windows VPS, and the most expensive is kinda on the edge of being pointless, since you can rent a dedicated server with better spec for that kind of money (ours costs ~$200 every 3 months, half of which is for an additional 1G link, and you don't have to pay or wait for IPKVM). Hell, if you build your own shiny server and throw it into rented rack space, it'll probably pay for itself in less than a year.
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#4
R0H1T
kayjay010101$24/month for a literally unusable experience, thanks Microsoft :)
Like, 2GB of RAM in W10? That's not usable. And a single vCore? Really?
Who is this aimed at?
People with more $ than brains?
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#5
LTUGamer
It is just better to buy dedicated PC and instal full version of MS Office (not MS Office 365)
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#6
silentbogo
Waitaminute.... It's not even per VM, it's per user per month.... Someone's feeling pretty confident with these margins
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#7
lexluthermiester
W1zzardlol this is crazy expensive
This is likely meant for enterprise users.
R0H1TPeople with more $ than brains?
Agreed.
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#8
W1zzard
lexluthermiesterThis is likely meant for enterprise users.
Citrix is MUCH more affordable than that, and actually tested
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#9
silentbogo
lexluthermiesterThis is likely meant for enterprise users.
It's wa-a-a-y too expensive even for enterprise users.
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#10
lexluthermiester
W1zzardCitrix is MUCH more affordable than that, and actually tested
Agreed! Citrix is a much more mature platform.
silentbogoIt's wa-a-a-y too expensive even for enterprise users.
That depends on who we're talking about. But yes, a single lifetime COA is MUCH more cost effective.
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#11
Camm
W1zzardCitrix is MUCH more affordable than that, and actually tested
I can count on one hand the amount of good implementations I've seen of Citrix over my career.

People are missing two pretty important facts about W365 however, that also explains much of the cost issues.

1\ This is designed to integrate in as a desktop like device and be fully manageable by standard tooling, including Intune.

2\ For cost conscious users looking to do concurrency and utilisation based pricing, the solution is Azure Desktops. Sadly, that comes with a much higher complexity.

Personally, I want to see the ease of management of Windows365 with the utilisation based costs of Azure Desktops, but I can see why that is hard to marriage up cost wise.
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#12
windwhirl
kayjay010101$24/month for a literally unusable experience, thanks Microsoft :)
Like, 2GB of RAM in W10? That's not usable. And a single vCore? Really?
Who is this aimed at?
To be frank, I think that for certain applications, 1 vcore and 2 GB of RAM could be more than enough. However the high price is too much of a turn off, so it's probably gonna be used by people that have no other choice... So, not sure who's gonna use it outside of IT staff testing its usability lol
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#13
Hardware Geek
Great. This will eventually trickle down to consumers in some form. Sure, you might get a "free" upgrade if you have late model hardware to windows 11, but they will put more and more functionality into "services" that cost extra while stripping functionality from users without a subscription. Otherwise there is simply no justification for these ludicrous prices, even in a corporate environment.
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#14
windwhirl
Hardware GeekGreat. This will eventually trickle down to consumers in some form. Sure, you might get a "free" upgrade if you have late model hardware to windows 11, but they will put more and more functionality into "services" that cost extra while stripping functionality from users without a subscription. Otherwise there is simply no justification for these ludicrous prices, even in a corporate environment.
Entering FUD territory there.
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#15
dir_d
This isn't really that expensive, ive got a customer that's paying about 80 dollars per user a month on Green Cloud using VMWare Horizon's DaaS solution. I think this could do well but it is absolutely targeted at enterprise and not the normal user.

If you are a startup or a company that didn't have any IT infrastructure, buying some switches a firewall then buying Window 365 for your users and letting them BYOD makes a lot of sense.
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#16
TheinsanegamerN
dir_dThis isn't really that expensive, ive got a customer that's paying about 80 dollars per user a month on Green Cloud using VMWare Horizon's DaaS solution. I think this could do well but it is absolutely targeted at enterprise and not the normal user.

If you are a startup or a company that didn't have any IT infrastructure, buying some switches a firewall then buying Window 365 for your users and letting them BYOD makes a lot of sense.
$284 for a year of access to a single core 2GB RAM windows desktop is WAY overpriced. Same with the high end, at the monthly prices building a workstation to ahndle this will be far mroe cost effective int he long run, even with MS trying to kill off older hardware with their TPM BS.
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#17
dir_d
TheinsanegamerN$284 for a year of access to a single core 2GB RAM windows desktop is WAY overpriced. Same with the high end, at the monthly prices building a workstation to ahndle this will be far mroe cost effective int he long run, even with MS trying to kill off older hardware with their TPM BS.
Too expensive for a normal user i agree but not to expensive for an Enterprise specially when you cut the cost of infrastructure.
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#18
mechtech
"Windows 365 cloud streaming service that allows businesses to stream a Windows 10 or 11 machine over the internet."

bahahahahahahahaha
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#19
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
Holy crap, does Microsoft not even know it's own software? Windows 10 on 1-Core 2GB of RAM is unusable even for the most basic of apps like Office.
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#20
windwhirl
newtekie1Holy crap, does Microsoft not even know it's own software? Windows 10 on 1-Core 2GB of RAM is unusable even for the most basic of apps like Office.
I think they're offering the cores specifically for running apps. I doubt that core is also used by the OS. So, whatever VMs they spin up, they probably have some way to segregate the OS internal workings to a select couple of cores that are never used by apps, while whatever app you spin up can only use the number of cores you payed for, which should be segregated from the cores the OS uses.
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#21
T_Zel
TheinsanegamerN$284 for a year of access to a single core 2GB RAM windows desktop is WAY overpriced. Same with the high end, at the monthly prices building a workstation to ahndle this will be far mroe cost effective int he long run, even with MS trying to kill off older hardware with their TPM BS.
Saying they're "trying to kill off older hardware with their TPM BS" outs you as having no idea what you're talking about. TPMs have been standard equipment and in use in enterprise since Vista - I have an ancient Optiplex 910 that is equipped with one, for example. I'm sure Microsoft figures that by the time Windows 10 support ends in 2025, non-TPM capable consumer hardware will be beyond its useful lifespan - which is not unfair in my opinion given said hardware will be reaching a decade old at that point.

And I swear, some people seem to be completely unable to fathom that a product might not be made for them. The enterprise world is rather different than that of the dunning-kruger gamer crowd. You don't have a multi-million dollar capex/opex expenditure to manage.
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#22
Punkenjoy
Unless you are a small business and you don't have a Microsoft rep, you rarely pay the listed price. We pay about 30% of the actual license cost in our enterprise agreement.

Those would still be expensive for what they are. I wonder what are the future of these Virtual Desktop solution when more and more apps are now web base.
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#23
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
windwhirlI think they're offering the cores specifically for running apps. I doubt that core is also used by the OS. So, whatever VMs they spin up, they probably have some way to segregate the OS internal workings to a select couple of cores that are never used by apps, while whatever app you spin up can only use the number of cores you payed for, which should be segregated from the cores the OS uses.
I don't see anything that indicates that at all.
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#24
Camm
newtekie1I don't see anything that indicates that at all.
Microsoft categorises the machine options by use case, the 2c options are tagged as Point of Sale and Kiosk systems
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#25
Hardware Geek
windwhirlEntering FUD territory there.
It's certainly speculation on my part, but considering Microsoft is moving further and further into software as a service, I expect eventually windows will have a monthly fee eventually. I'm sure they'll justify it by calling it a security measure.

My current hardware can't "upgrade" to windows 11 so I'll be in the market for a laptop soon. Even if I could though, my laptop is simply too big to be usable on an airplane. I just accepted a job that requires flying out to new locations every week and I'll need to be able to work on the plane, so I'll have a chance to use it, and I hope I'm wrong about the direction they are heading.
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