In late June,Opens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”> ZDNet reported Opens a new window that, “Microsoft is building a new desktop-as-a-service offering built on top of Windows Virtual Desktop that could launch as soon as 2021.†This new offering, called Cloud PC, will be different from existing Microsoft virtual desktop services like Windows Virtual Desktop, and will most likely be delivered from Microsoft Azure data centers. Can this strategy work, considering all the other desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) providers already in the market?
Desktop-as-a-Service Is Poised to Take Off in Remote-First WorldÂ
With work from anywhere becoming a permanent trend, many employers are now reconsidering how they will manage performance, security, interoperability, backup and recovery and agile development with a physically decentralized workforce. Enter the desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) vendor, who will provide some combination of cloud storage and network capacity, connectivity to multiple remote clients, support for client software patching and upgrades, and integration with a company’s current on-premise applications.
The main thrust of DaaS is to have the enterprise delegate management of the client desktop experience to a provider. In effect, the user’s desktop and directories associated with it are non-local. This can lead to significant benefits. Costs of managing a network of hundreds or thousands of PCs, their software and their security can be offloaded to a provider. In addition, security is greatly enhanced as all data is stored physically separate from the physical machine.
Several vendors currently offer virtual desktop services. These vary from vendor-managed, subscription-based offerings such as Microsoft Managed Desktop to providers of virtual desktops on other vendors cloud footprints like VMWare Horizon CloudOpens a new window to integration with other services like Amazon WorkspacesOpens a new window . Each vendor has various options and supports (or does not support) certain client configurations. For example, VMWare Horizon Cloud supports Windows OS only, while other vendors support Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. Service prices also vary a great deal.
Learn More: Microsoft Virtual Desktop Release Brings New Desktop-as-a-Service Options
What is Microsoft’s Play With its New DaaS Offering?
 Microsoft already has an established cloud presence with itsOpens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”> Azure Opens a new window global data centers. On this platform, it already supports a virtual desktop infrastructure calledOpens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”> Windows Virtual DesktopOpens a new window that allows you to deploy virtual desktops and apps to your remote workforce. It specializes in supporting multi-session Windows 10 desktops with Microsoft 365 apps such as Office, e-mail, chat and calendaring. What, then, is Cloud PC?
Instead of deploying and managing virtual desktops and apps to remote clients, Cloud PC will connect to customer’s own PCs in the fashion of “thin clientsâ€. In addition, while specific pricing models have not yet been announced, typical VDI services are priced according to cloud resource usage (storage, CPU, etc.). Cloud PC, on the other hand, will most likely be offered as a subscription service.
 This is a huge play in the remote desktop management space. Most enterprise security and capacity planning managers would greatly prefer that all client hardware, OS and apps be standardized and controlled centrally. In this way, enterprise IT can more easily manage OS and software updates, and this greatly simplifies app deployment, performance and security monitoring and user support. Cloud PC will support multiple categories of PC hardware, OS and software, and may also manage to deliver Microsoft software.
Can Azure Support Another Product?
 According to Gartner, although the worldwide IaaS public cloud services market grew 31.3Opens a new window %Opens a new window in 2018, by July 2019 the largest player by market share was Amazon (47.8%), with Microsoft a distant second (15.5%). Microsoft, by adding Cloud PC as another offering in its Azure cloud, thereby expands the range of services provided to enterprises wanting options for managing their end-user networks.
Can Azure support this? Azure has suffered various outages of various types in the past. InOpens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”> January 2019Opens a new window , customers in Europe lost access to some Office 365 and Azure services. InOpens a new window rel=”nofollow noopener” title=”Opens a new window” target=”_blank”> May 2019Opens a new window , a nearly three-hour DNS outage affected Azure. Cloud-based solutions tend to be quite resilient in handling physical hardware outages; however, network DNS issues and DDoS attacks can affect major portions of a cloud’s infrastructure.
Microsoft will need to up its game by adding resources and doing contingency planning for potential outages on its Azure platform before a new service like Cloud PC will be seen as viable.
Indeed, this is why several major IT enterprises implemented “internal†clouds, where storage and processing were handled by on-premise equipment while expressing themselves as cloud-based services to clients. While these solutions tend to be quite costly in terms of equipment footprint, software licenses and staff resources, the internal cloud has one big advantage — all security, software management and performance monitoring is centralized in-house.
Learn More: Microsoft’s New Cloud-Hosted Service for Corporate Users? Desktop PrintingÂ
What Will the Competition Be Doing?
This is perhaps the most puzzling of all issues related to the proposed Microsoft offering. The biggest competitor, Amazon WorkSpaces, already supports the same client configurations as Microsoft Azure, although AWS tends to be more expensive. For example, starting prices (as of March 2020) to support the lowest-cost tier for Windows machines is $25/month for AWS and $10.22/month for Azure.
On the other hand, Amazon AWS is best for small businesses because it offers a great combination of features and support, including a 12 month free pricing tier for businesses looking to use the Amazon virtual desktop environment. Microsoft Azure highlights its multiple recovery/failover options and low cost with its Azure Site Recovery offering.
What About Pricing?
Amazon will most likely be able to react to Microsoft’s Cloud PC with its own offering of remote desktop management via cloud. There will be many changes and pricing strategies emerging for all virtual desktop offerings in the coming year. This has a lot to do with the way current DaaS providers price their add-on services such as extra cloud storage, faster GPUs or availability of virtual machines. Another issue is whether providers will continue to charge by user or will migrate to fixed monthly or subscription rates. Another feature will be whether customers will have access to geographic-specific cloud services.
Finally, sometimes left out of the discussion is the implementation of a hybrid cloud. This would include both on-premise and off-premise cloud storage and processing, perhaps to allow an enterprise to begin with a local cloud and selectively migrate applications and data to the off-site provider. It is also possible to split your data and applications across multiple providers both internal and external. This would allow you to maintain mission-critical applications and data in-house while moving large-volume transaction processing to an external cloud.
Can Cloud PC Compete With Rivals?
The viability of a subscription-based, vendor-managed remote desktop environment remains to be seen. The most important factor will be whether Microsoft is able to differentiate Cloud PC from its current and upcoming competition. Selling points will be the global Azure infrastructure and subscription pricing. Possible red flags will be the resilience of the Azure network and whether competitors like Amazon will roll out similar products.
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