We have confirmation of Windows 365 Enterprise base license requirements:
Windows 10 Enterprise
Intune
Azure AD P1
and the bundles that count too:
Microsoft 365 F3/E3/E5/A3/A5/Biz Prem/Student Use
Microsoft note that swapping a user’s Win365 license (by “resizing”) is not “license reassignment” and so can be done as frequently as required.
Also, you can’t use it for “digital asset transaction validation workloads” (aka Bitcoin mining I assume).
We also get confirmation that Windows 365 Business has no license pre-requisites (unlike Enterprise) although Windows 365 Business w/Windows Hybrid Benefit requires a Windows 10 Pro primary device (which is used periodically).
Azure Arc SQL has been added and Hybrid Benefit can be used…but prevents use on Listed Providers infrastructure.
There is a $0 license offer for Azure Virtual Desktop (until December 31, 2021) where you “serve Azure Virtual Desktop Customer Solutions to third parties on Azure”.
A new member of the 365 family has joined us – alongside Office 365, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 – we now have Windows 365.
Formerly known as Cloud PC, this latest offering enables you to stream an entire PC – including the OS, apps, and settings – from the cloud to any device. This means Windows 10 and 11 will be easily available on any device – including MacOS and Linux.
Although clearly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid, global shift to hybrid working, something like this has been a long time coming in many regards. It’s also driven by the changing security landscape…Microsoft also see this as a way to help organisations combat the rise of security threats – let Microsoft take care of securing your desktops so you don’t have to.
Although specific pricing information hasn’t been released yet, it’s expected there will be a range of pre-set options, making it more of an “off the shelf” SaaS offering than the current Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). Different SKUs and plans will offer different amounts of storage, processing power, memory etc. for organisations to choose from, with Satya Nadella stating this offering would be applicable to businesses of any size.
while users with non-Windows Pro endpoints require:
Windows VDA E3 + EMS E3
Alternatively, both scenarios can be covered by licenses for:
Microsoft 365 F3/E3/E5/Business Premium
Technical requirements
It’s not quite as straightforward as just having those licenses, you will also need:
Azure subscription
Azure Virtual Network
Azure Active Directory sync
Certain ports open
to ensure that everything works optimally.
More information on the requirements and how to provision can be found here.
Finally…
Not surprisingly, there will be 2 flavours available:
Windows 365 Business
Windows 365 Enterprise
and it is set to launch on August 2, 2021. I look forward to seeing more information as it becomes available…and hopefully trying it out myself!
Update
While Microsoft are yet to announce official pricing, pricing for 1 SKU has been revealed. For a desktop with 2vCPU/4GB RAM/128GB storage it will $31 per user per month ($372 per year) – which strikes me as quite expensive…
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 