AWS Work-spaces: What’s different?

Let’s understand about AWS Workspaces -

Amazon WorkSpaces is a managed, secure Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution. Amazon WorkSpaces can be used to provision either Windows or Linux desktops and quickly scale to provide thousands of desktops to workers across the globe. You can pay either monthly or hourly, just for the WorkSpaces you launch, which helps you save money when compared to traditional desktops and on-premises VDI solutions.

Amazon WorkSpaces helps you eliminate the complexity in managing hardware inventory, OS versions and patches, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), which helps simplify your desktop delivery strategy. With Amazon WorkSpaces, your users get a fast, responsive desktop of their choice that they can access anywhere, anytime, from any supported device.

Windows on AWS Workspaces, not challenging but enables to get off the upgrade treadmill-

With an estimated 50% of businesses still running Windows 7, migrating those millions of desktops and laptops to Windows 10 remains a top priority for businesses globally. The impetus, of course, is the end of mainstream support for Windows 7 coming up in January 2020, which may make Windows 7 PCs more vulnerable to malware, ransomware, and other types of security issues unless specific action is taken.

Challenges in such migrations with traditional approach are-

1.     Like previous Windows upgrades, Windows 10 is more resource intensive and requires more powerful hardware to deliver a comparable user experience. As a result, the customers we’ve spoken to are also planning a hardware refresh, which is costly, operationally challenging, and may require significant capital expenditure.

2.     Windows 10 comes with a more frequent feature update and patch delivery schedule, which makes desktop management challenging as customers must now spend even more time testing and deploying patches. More frequent updates also may require customers to implement robust rollback plans in case these Windows updates cause compatibility problems.

The above chronic pain for most customers and have become a part of the routine they carry. Windows 10 upgrade is a great time to modernize your desktop operations by moving your desktops and applications to AWS. Here’s why: Amazon WorkSpaces is a turnkey, fully-managed desktop as a service (DaaS) solution that makes it easy for customers to run and manage their desktop fleets on AWS. By moving their desktops to the cloud with WorkSpaces, customers can upgrade to Windows 10 and get off the PC-upgrade treadmill without breaking the bank.

As a fully-managed service, Amazon WorkSpaces deals with the hassle of frequent Windows updates so that our customers don’t have to. Updates are automatically delivered to Windows and Linux based WorkSpaces during preset maintenance windows that customers can adjust as needed. Alternatively, for customers who want additional control over patch management, AWS provides a number of user data management and image management features that make it easier to manage Windows 10 updates.

Author- Shashank Roy

 References- AWS Blogs Link, AWS Workspaces Official Site Link