AWS pulls desktop-as-a-service from the PC

Amazon Web Services has made a significant enhancement to its Workspaces desktop-as-a-service service, by allowing support for Teradici's PC-over-IP protocol and “zero clients” that run it.

Workspaces is a US$35 a month service that offers Windows Server 2008 re-skinned with the Windows 7 UI. Until today, consuming the service required player software running on a Mac, PC, iPad, Kindle Fire or Android tablet. But AWS has now announced that Workspaces will run in zero clients, Teradici's term for devices that pack almost no computing power other than than needed to stream software into a monitor and handle a mouse and keyboard input.

The likes of HP and Dell make zero clients, and it's also possible to buy a zero client monitor.

Anecdotally, many desktop-as-a-service users use old PCs to run their cloudy successors. Using them in that role doesn't remove the need for an operating system and all the maintenance that entails. Adding support for zero clients therefore reduces total cost of ownership for an AWS Workspace.

Again anecdotally, The Reg's virtualisation desk hears whispers that Workspaces aren't setting the world on fire. A quick spot of Googling reveals that zero client monitors can be had for about US$460, rather cheaper than many new business PCs. At the peak Workspaces price of US$75 a month – which buys you twin vCPUs, 7.5GB of memory, 100GB of storage, AV software and Microsoft Office Professional 2010 – you're looking at US$900 a year for a PC, plus network costs and the cost of the zero client.

If Workspaces are as hands-off as promised, and therefore require less tending by sysadmins, the move to support PCoIP could make for an attractive and well-priced desktop option.

Now if only AWS will hurry up and release the Workspaces player it's reportedly considering for Linux, so your correspondent can see if they will run on a Raspberry Pi. If a Workspace can thrive in a zero client, surely the Pi can do the job too. ®