Has managing desktops in your organizations become more challenging over the last five years with the growing number of remote workers? Have you explored Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) to learn how it could help you reduce cost and simplify IT management? Are you familiar with the offerings available on Amazon WorkSpaces and the option to bring your own M365 E3/E5 applications?
These are important questions for every business to consider, especially considering the growing number of remote workers across the globe since the COVID epidemic. It is less common today for workers to have access to a local office with an onsite IT staff. Furthermore, many workers today prefer to use their own device (or a combination of devices), which can increase the complexity of management and security. These shifts have changed the way that IT interacts with their workforce. Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) is becoming increasingly attractive to businesses as a solution to these challenges.
DaaS refers to cloud-based solutions that allow users to access their desktop anywhere and from any device. While Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) has been around for several years, these solutions have traditionally required the organization to be fully responsible for infrastructure, management, and security. This can be labor intensive for IT staff who must also focus on other areas of the business. When organizations move to DaaS, many of these challenges become the responsibility of the DaaS solution provider. This allows IT to focus on areas of the business, while provisioning and securing the cloud desktop environment through a simple cloud management tool.
DaaS offerings are rapidly evolving in the public cloud, and Amazon WorkSpaces is a leader in this space. WorkSpaces became more appealing to many Microsoft customers in 2023 when an update to the Product Terms allowed customers with M365 subscriptions to deploy “M365 Applications for Enterprise” on WorkSpaces. This suite includes popular productivity applications like Teams, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Amazon WorkSpaces offers a choice between different deployment and cost models based on the diverse needs of their customers. Choosing the right WorkSpaces option has important technical and cost benefits, so businesses should choose carefully to maximize their benefits. These fully managed options include WorkSpaces Personal, WorkSpaces Pools, and WorkSpaces Core. Evolve Cloud Services can help businesses evaluate their needs and choose the best model (or combination of models) for their unique business needs.
Workspaces Personal, WorkSpaces Pool, and WorkSpaces Core
Amazon WorkSpaces Personal is a persistent desktop, which means that users can save their settings, files, and applications between sessions. WorkSpaces Personal is ideal for users who need daily access to the same desktop and applications and this option most resembles the traditional physical PC experience. There is a monthly fee for each user, along with a choice between two billing options. The first choice is AlwaysOn which offers unlimited per- user usage at a flat monthly rate, which is ideal for workers who use WorkSpaces for their primary desktop. The second option is AutoStop, which uses hourly metering that stops when an instance is not active. These solutions are ideal for scenarios where the user is part time or only uses their desktop occasionally.
Amazon WorkSpaces Pools is non-persistent and does not save users settings or retain files between sessions. Examples of scenarios that might benefit from WorkSpaces Pools include customer service centers and training labs, where users receive a fresh desktop on every sign-in and do not need to save settings or files. Workspaces Pools customers can share a pool of virtual desktops between several users, which can help lower cost. WorkSpaces Pools is billed according to the total number of concurrent users multiplied by an hourly rate. There is also a monthly fee for each user.
Amazon WorkSpaces Core allows businesses to use their own third party VDI solutions, such as Citrix. In contrast to WorkSpaces Personal and WorkSpaces Pool, WorkSpaces Core does not include the VDI software. WorkSpaces Core is ideal for businesses who wish to maintain a familiar user experience and management interface, while benefiting from a secure and scalable desktop environment in the cloud. Without the inclusion of VDI software, the cost for WorkSpaces Core is reduced by 20% compared to the WorkSpaces Personal and Workspaces Pool. The billing options include a choice between a fixed hourly rate when the instances are in use, or a monthly subscription that permits unlimited use by each user.
WorkSpaces customers also have a choice between different operating systems (OS) and licensing models, which can have a significant impact on cost.
Licensing and Cost Implications
WorkSpaces offers both Linux and Windows desktop experiences. When businesses choose the Windows OS, they receive a virtual desktop that looks and feels like a Windows 10 or Windows 11 while running on Windows Server rather than the desktop client. WorkSpaces customers who prefer to run the actual Windows 10/11 desktop client (instead of using Windows Server by default) can bring and deploy their own Windows desktop licenses on dedicated WorkSpaces, which has a 100 per-seat minimum per region.
The complexity of Microsoft licensing and the limitations Microsoft puts on their largest cloud competitors can create confusion around the bring your own license (BYOL) and license-included options available on WorkSpaces. There are three components that should be considered on WorkSpaces from a licensing perspective: Windows OS, Remote Desktop, and Microsoft Office.
When WorkSpaces customers choose the default shared-tenant experience that runs on Windows Server, the cost for using Windows Server is included in the WorkSpaces cost. In this scenario, AWS is licensing Windows Server under their own licensing agreement with Microsoft on behalf of the end customer. Billing is on a per-hour basis, and depending on the plan chosen, customers can save money by turning off resources when they are not required. There is also a flat $4.19 charge per-user for Remote Desktop that is included in the cost. WorkSpaces customers who own Remote Desktop licenses with active Software Assurance can BYOL the licenses through License Mobility benefits and eliminate this cost on their AWS bill.
The alternative to using Windows Server is for customers to BYOL the Windows Desktop OS. This typically occurs when organizations have technical requirements that make the use of the Windows Desktop client necessary. In these scenarios, Microsoft licensing requires that customers obtain a per-user VDA E3/E5 subscription license from Microsoft, which completely covers the use of Windows desktop for one user. While M365 E3/E5 subscriptions do not include the VDA license, customers who subscribe to these plans can obtain the VDA license at an approximate 50% discount. Customers bringing VDA licenses to WorkSpaces Personal also save $4 per-user/per month, which largely offsets the cost of purchasing the VDA license from Microsoft. As previously mentioned, when WorkSpaces customers bring their own desktop OS, Microsoft licensing requires that they use physically dedicated infrastructure, which is available on Amazon WorkSpaces with a 100 seat minimum per region at no extra charge. WorkSpaces customers who bring their own desktop OS do not need to bring or license Remote Desktop Services because they are not using or accessing Windows Server.
Microsoft Office is the final component for most Windows on WorkSpaces deployments. As mentioned in the Microsoft Product Terms here, organizations who have M365 E3/E5, A3/A5, and G3/G5 can bring and use “M365 Apps for Enterprise” on Amazon WorkSpaces. This option is specific to M365 and does not cover perpetual Office (non-M365) licenses. The BYOL options for perpetual Office licenses are limited to Office 2019 and prior versions, require that the licenses were purchased under an agreement effective before 10/2019, and require that the customer use physically dedicated servers. The alternative to bringing Office is to purchase license-included Office Professional from WorkSpaces at a monthly cost of $15/user.
Prior to purchasing VDA licenses and bringing the Windows desktop OS, it is highly recommended that organizations evaluate and test the server-based offering. Unless there is a technical need to use the actual Windows client, the default experience on Windows Server will meet the needs of most organizations while simplifying licensing and reducing overall cost.
Need Help Optimizing your DaaS Solution on Amazon WorkSpaces? Evolve Cloud Services Is Ready To Help!
There are many factors to consider when choosing the best DaaS solution for a business. To make the most cost effective and strategic choices, businesses must consider the needs of all their users, which can vary widely within an organization. For example, a global company might have regional call centers that could benefit from WorkSpaces Pools, while having developers and day-to-day workers that could benefit from Amazon Personal or Amazon Core. The best way to identify the most cost-effective WorkSpaces option and licensing model is to engage Evolve Cloud Services for a technical and licensing assessment.
Evolve Cloud Services starts the assessment by mapping an organization’s existing desktop environment to determine capacity, instance sizing, and memory requirements. This information is useful in identifying the Workspaces families (Personal, Pools, Core) that best fit an organization’s varied business needs. If customers can benefit from WorkSpaces Pools and purchasing based on concurrent use, this would be identified and calculated during this step. Usage patterns within the business are analyzed to determine the most cost effective power management options (e.g. AutoStop versus AlwaysOn). Storage requirements are considered and optimized, and scenarios which may cause overages are identified. Once the technical analysis is complete, Evolve models and contrasts BYOL and license included options to determine the cost impact of differing licensing decisions. Evolve can also help organizations identify their BYOL eligible license quantities determine whether they own enough licenses to achieve their needs.
Are you interested in learning more about how Evolve Cloud Services can help your organization evaluate Amazon WorkSpaces? Do you need help determining the best technical and licensing options for your cloud migration?
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If you have questions about migrating to Amazon WorkSpaces or need help determining the most cost-effective technical and licensing options for a cloud migration, please contact us for more information.