Amazon goes virtual...desktop.. with their new Amazon WorkSpaces offering

Paul Thurrott's Windows Super Site - Amazon takes Virtual Desktop to the Cloud

Amazon today announced a new service called Amazon Workspaces, which brings fully-managed desktop computing services to its AWS cloud. Using a technology called Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI, the Amazon solutions lets users use the device of their choice—iPad, Kindle Fire, or an Android tablet—but still have access to the PC solutions they need for work. And of course, this being Amazon, the big benefit here is the low cost: Amazon says Workspaces costs less than half the price of traditional VDI solutions.

"Over the past couple years, the new service customers have requested most frequently is a virtual cloud desktop service," says Amazon WorkSpaces general manager Gene Farrell. "They've been frustrated by the available options – traditional desktops that are hard to manage and keep secure, or virtual desktops that are expensive and deliver inconsistent performance. Amazon WorkSpaces aims to address these issues by offering secure, easy-to-manage, high-performance desktops in the cloud at a fraction of the price of traditional VDI."

The Amazon solution appears to be a modern solution to an age-old issue. ...

Amazon WorkSpaces

Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed desktop computing service in the cloud. Amazon WorkSpaces allows customers to easily provision cloud-based desktops that allow end-users to access the documents, applications and resources they need with the device of their choice, including laptops, iPad, Kindle Fire, or Android tablets. With a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, customers can provision a high-quality desktop experience for any number of users at a cost that is highly competitive with traditional desktops and half the cost of most virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions.

Benefits

• Fully Managed
• Support Multiple Devices
• Keep Your Data Secure and Available
• Choose the Hardware and Software you need
• Pay as You Go
• Integrate your Corporate Directory

Use Cases

• Mobile Device Access
• Secure WorkSpaces
• Remote Employees
• Seasonal Workers
• Student WorkSpaces
• Developer WorkSpaces
• You can provision WorkSpaces for developers and install the tools they need to build applications for your business. Your source code is not stored on developers’ devices helping you keep your intellectual property safe.

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Amazon WorkSpaces Pricing

With Amazon WorkSpaces, you pay only for the WorkSpaces you launch. There is no up-front commitment and you can delete WorkSpaces at any time. WorkSpaces are billed on a monthly basis. The monthly fee for Workspaces includes both the infrastructure (compute, storage, bandwidth for streaming) and the software applications. Please see the table below for pricing details.

If you would like to launch WorkSpaces with more software already pre-installed (e.g., Microsoft Office, Trend Micro Anti-Virus, etc.), you should choose the Standard Plus or Performance Plus options. If you don’t need the applications offered in those bundles or you would like to use software licenses for some of the applications in the Standard Plus or Performance Plus options that you’ve already paid for, we recommend the Standard or Performance bundles. Whichever option you choose, you can always add your own software whenever you like.

WorkSpaces Bundle	Hardware Resources	Applications	Monthly Price
Standard	1 vCPU, 3.75 GiB Memory, 50 GB User Storage	Utilities (Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, 7-Zip, Adobe Flash, JRE)	$35
Standard Plus	1 vCPU, 3.75 GiB Memory, 50 GB User Storage	Microsoft Office Professional 2010, Trend Micro Anti-Virus, Utilities (Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, 7-Zip, Adobe Flash, JRE)	$50
Performance	2 vCPU, 7.5 GiB Memory, 100 GB User Storage	Utilities (Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, 7-Zip, Adobe Flash, JRE)	$60
Performance Plus	2 vCPU, 7.5 GiB Memory, 100 GB User Storage	Microsoft Office Professional 2010, Trend Micro Anti-Virus, Utilities (Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, 7-Zip, Adobe Flash, JRE)	$75

 

Interesting and inevitable. THIS, and cloud services like it, is more likely the death of the PC than anything...