The 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for DaaS (Desktop as a Service) positions AWS as a Leader for the first time. Last year we were recognized as a Challenger. We believe this is a result of our commitment to meet a wide range of customer needs by delivering a diverse portfolio of virtual desktop services with license portability (including Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise), our geographic strategy, and operational capabilities focused on cost optimization and automation. Also, our focus on easy-to-use interfaces for managing each aspect of our virtual desktop services means that our customers rarely need to make use of third-party tools.

You can access the complete 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service (DaaS) to learn more.

AWS DaaS Offerings
Let’s take a quick look at our lineup of DaaS offerings (part of our End User Computing portfolio):

Amazon WorkSpaces Family – Originally launched in early 2014 and enhanced frequently ever since, Amazon WorkSpaces gives you a desktop computing environment running Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, Amazon Linux, or Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the cloud. Designed to support remote & hybrid workers, knowledge workers, developer workstations, and learning environments, WorkSpaces is available in sixteen AWS Regions, in your choice of six bundle sizes, including the GPU-equipped Graphics G4dn bundle. WorkSpaces Personal gives each user a persistent desktop — perfect for developers, knowledge workers, and others who need to install apps and save files or data. If your users do not need persistent desktops (often the case for contact centers, training, virtual learning, and back office access) you can use WorkSpaces Pools to simplify management and reduce costs. WorkSpaces Core provides managed virtual desktop infrastructure that is designed to work with third-party VDI solutions such as those from Citrix, Leostream, Omnissa, and Workspot.

Amazon WorkSpaces clients are available for desktops and tablets, with web access (Amazon WorkSpaces Secure Browser) and the Amazon WorkSpaces Thin Client providing even more choices. If you have the appropriate Windows 10 or 11 desktop license from Microsoft, you can bring your own license to the cloud (also known as BYOL), where it will run on hardware that is dedicated to you.

You can read about the Amazon WorkSpaces Family and review the WorkSpaces Features to learn more about what WorkSpaces has to offer.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 – Launched in late 2016, Amazon AppStream gives you instant, streamed access to SaaS applications and desktop applications without writing code or refactoring the application. You can easily scale applications and make them available to users across the globe without the need to manage any infrastructure. A wide range of compute, memory, storage, GPU, and operating system options let you empower remote workers, while also taking advantage of auto-scaling to avoid overprovisioning. Amazon AppStream offers three fleet types: Always on (instant connections), On-Demand (2 minutes to launch), and Elastic (for unpredictable demand). Pricing varies by type, with per second and per hour granularity for Windows and Linux; read Amazon AppStream 2.0 Pricing to learn more.

— Jeff;

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