Azure vs Windows 365 - what should you use?

windows 365 cloud pcs and azure virtual machines may seem like different names for the same thing a computer that resides in a microsoft data center that you can control remotely however while they do share many aspects in common there are some differences that might be important in deciding which one's right for you and that's what this video is about now if you don't want to use any cloud-based pc we don't use the cloud at all then neither of them is going to be a good choice for you and it's a bit odd that you're watching the video but welcome i'm glad you're here and if you're unsure of what a cloud pc is or what a virtual machine is then check out some of the other videos on the channel where i cover a number of topics related to learning and technology and how we can use technology to teach and learn better including virtual machines and cloud pcs so assuming that you're here and assuming that you want to see the difference between windows 365 and azure that's what we're going to talk about in this video the ways in which they're the same and how they differ specifically in this video i'll look at some of the following aspects to compare the two first the manageability and how easy they are to acquire uh the cost and the cost management of azure versus windows 365 how do we access them the different ways that we access the platforms and then finally some functionality and some common scenarios of where i may wish to use one or the other now to be clear i won't be covering all of the benefits of a cloud system in general versus an on-premise situation that's a that's entirely different topic so if you're a video editor or a video game player or you use resources that require extensive graphics support then this is not where we're going to cover that a lot of times that will require an on-premise solution now the first step in using a cloud virtual machine is to create that machine in azure this process involves logging into azure then selecting to create a virtual machine then configuring the options for that virtual machines such as the data center location the processor allocation the memory allocation and the type of storage that you'd like to use and then allowing that system to be created finally with azure you need to ensure that the system is configured for remote access and we'll look at that how that happens in a moment in windows 365 it's considerably easier to acquire and procure that system it's much easier than azure in this regard you can either have your i t department allocate the system for you or you can log into your microsoft 365 account and select from a range of systems that meet your needs and the rest just happens automatically a new cloud pc is there for you to access windows 365 makes the allocation and access to cloud pcs much easier on individuals as well as it departments and this is a strength of the service it's probably intended to be easier it's more of a click and buy solution that handles a lot of the back end work for you even it departments will find it easier to work with as they can manage and allocate the cloud pcs through the microsoft 365 administration portal purchasing assigning and managing licenses to cloud pcs for their users is much easier cost is an interesting area where you need to really consider your own use case scenario for simplicity windows 365 is the easiest to understand you select the size of the cloud pc you want and then you're charged a month's monthly fee for that system if you leave the system on all day every day you pay that price if you don't use this system for an entire month you still pay that price it's a monthly charge this is where the comparison between azure and windows 365 gets a bit trickier in my opinion if the windows 365 system is assigned to you by your company then this might just be fine the company can allocate this as an operational expense and it might prove to be more economical to the organization than purchasing new hardware for each employee especially if you account for the total cost of ownership for the hardware the maintenance the its support those are all things that need to be taken into consideration with so many people having their own hardware at home this allows for a bring your own device environment where the organization provides a company cloud pc which is configured with the business applications but they don't provide the hardware what about azure though when you create an azure virtual machine you're given an estimated monthly cost but this is based on the assumption of having that machine always on 24 7. if you only use it half the time you pay far less i actually have a video on the channel where i demonstrate the cost of running an azure virtual machine for only 10 to 12 hours a day and it's not that much this means that if i only use my azure vm for a few hours a day or even a few hours a week as long as i shut it down i stop paying as much for it i can even configure it to automatically shut down at a certain time to save me money this can mean a huge cost savings for workloads that aren't always running so i can either have a far more powerful system that i run for less hours or pay less money for the equivalent system that windows 365 would give me because i'm not charged as much when it's off so we need to access these cloud systems and once again this is very similar but also slightly difference between the two services in azure we access the cloud virtual machine using microsoft remote desktop connection which is an rdp client that we can download for windows mac ios or android this gives us a remote control session to our azure machine so we can take control of it in windows 365 we're given more options we can connect to our cloud pc using a browser and run the system within the browser or we can use the remote desktop application which is not the same as the microsoft remote desktop connection they're separate programs and that last point can be a bit confusing but it's important because it really does affect the functionality of the connection so what about the functionality if you're taking control of a remote system you would think that this means the functionality resides on the remote system and you're simply controlling and looking at it through your connection well that isn't incorrect it also doesn't tell the full story specifically with windows 365 you can allow access to some local resources from the remote system critically you can allow access to the clipboard microphone printer and files on the system that you're using to access the cloud pc on windows 365. although it doesn't say so with microsoft when you first log in you actually can also access the webcam on the local system with the windows 365 cloud pc and that's a big big game changer especially if you want to use things like microsoft teams and if you saw my other videos on accessing windows 365 you'll know that i wasn't too impressed with the quality of the video passed through but it was possible and they might improve it as they have more powerful windows pcs i actually allocated a much more powerful system and it worked really well i have another video coming up on that as well so this resource passthrough can be allowed with both the browser as well as the remote desktop software this isn't the case with azure with the azure remote desktop connection it isn't the same seamless experience that we get with windows 365. furthermore the remote desktop connection in windows 365 supports using multiple monitors so in my case i have three monitors in my office and the cloud pc was shown across all three monitors in windows 365. i could drag an application between the different monitors and place them where i wanted them so where does this leave us comparing the two in windows 365 it's easier to set up and manage it has more access options and they have more functionality so you get better display better sharing and generally a better user experience with windows 365. however the azure virtual machine does require me to do more configuration doesn't give me quite as much control in terms of displays sharing webcams sharing files and such but it does give me the ability to really manage costs so you might be left wondering what should i choose azure windows 365 well in my case i'm going to use azure for those projects where i only need a system for a few hours maybe to run a lab or an experiment or otherwise a temporary basis i can live with those limitations and challenges because it's going to be very economical i don't have to pay a monthly fee i just use what i use and i'm going to use windows 365 as well when i want a dedicated system that is configured for my work environment for a client or for a school scenario where i'm teaching for example specific topics mostly as a clean demonstration machine that i'm going to use when i do remote teaching however neither of the two is going to replace my personal computer i use that at home it's not going to replace it just yet specifically i use microsoft teams for hours and hours a day through video meetings and i need to make sure that that is a seamless experience before i'm going to switch to microsoft windows 365. uh it wasn't good enough on a low power three windows 365 cloud pc it has been pretty good now that i've upgraded that machine to a little bit of a more powerful machine and i'll do videos on that for sure on the channel but it needs to be a solution that works for me that is an area that i'm going to stay on top of as the service evolves and matures i suspect it will be changed to accommodate many use cases such as the ones that i'm involved with the teaching the remote access making sure i have that specific clean machine and you can expect videos from me on that as well as other topics that we can use around technology for learning and teaching thanks so much for watching

Channel: Learning and Technology with Frank

Views: 8,528

Rating: 4.9466667 out of 5

Keywords: edtech, education, windows 365, cloud pc, windows cloud pc, windows 365 cloud pc, azure virtual desktop, cloud computing, microsoft 365, windows virtual desktop, windows, azure, windows cloud, windows 365 features, education technology, cloud pc windows, microsoft cloud pc, windows 365 cloud, microsoft windows 365, microsoft, 365, frank bergdoll

Id: pdAfdggZBfc

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021