You’ve heard it many times from many places – cloud computing is the future. Initially, it gained popularity as an alternative approach to gaming, giving people the means to make use of more powerful hardware without having to buy it themselves.
On July 14, Microsoft announced Windows 365 — a service that makes use of cloud computing in a new, more productivity-oriented way. To put it in simple terms, this is a version of Windows that you can run on any kind of device – from your smartphone, iPad, a normal laptop or PC. The only requirement is an internet browser.
During the announcement on Wednesday, we didn’t get much else in terms of information besides the release date – August 2. Microsoft also said that Windows 365 will only be available to businesses, without giving any hints about it branching out to everyday users later on.
How will Windows 365 be priced?
However, during a Microsoft Inspire session, the company showed an example of a particular configuration and its price. The configuration is as follows: two CPUs, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage for the price of $31 per month. This offer is part of the Windows 365 Business option, intended for businesses with up to 300 users total.
There is even an option with a single CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage which is bound to be even more inexpensive. Although 2GB of fast memory seems rather insufficient.
A spokesperson from Microsoft informed The Verge that ‘This is pricing for just one SKU. Microsoft will have many more options, both in terms of configurations and price points, to share when the product becomes generally available on August 2nd.’
It’s worth also mentioning that Microsoft’s Cloud PCs will have top-notch internet speeds with download speeds of 10Gbps and upload speeds of 4Gbps. Keep in mind that stuff like USB and multiple monitors will only be available to Windows 365 users that are accessing the service from a Windows device.
