Today, I’m pleased to announce that Windows 365 Frontline in shared mode is now available in Germany West Central and Switzerland North within the Europe geography, bringing Cloud PCs even closer to customers across Europe.
With Germany West Central and Switzerland North now supported, customers can place Cloud PCs closer to users to realize lower latency and local data residency through the Microsoft Cloud.
This expansion strengthens global coverage and helps customers who need to keep data within national borders, meet industry or government compliance expectations, or provide users with faster, more consistent Cloud PC experiences.
What Windows 365 Frontline shared mode enables (and why it’s ideal for shift work)
Windows 365 Frontline in shared mode is built for workers who need short, task-based access to a Cloud PC and don’t require data persistence. Only one user can connect at a time, and when a user signs out, user data is deleted. Then, the Cloud PC is released for the next user, helping standardize access for shared, rotating workforces.
Windows 365 Frontline also supports delivering Cloud Apps (instead of the full desktop) using the same shared mode foundation—helpful when frontline users primarily need a small set of business apps.
Benefits
- Better user experience (low latency and consistency). Bringing Cloud PCs closer can improve responsiveness for users in and around Germany and Switzerland, aligning with the broader goal of a faster, more consistent Cloud PC experience.
- Data residency and compliance readiness. These regions help organizations that need data within national borders and/or must meet local regulatory expectations.
Recommended Next Steps
Below are a few actions to help you take advantage of Windows 365 Frontline in shared mode availability in Germany West Central and Switzerland North, depending on how your provisioning policies are configured.
Using Microsoft Hosted Network (MHN)?
MHN customers can start benefiting from the newly available Germany West Central and Switzerland North regions right away. Because Microsoft manages the networking for you, choosing the Europe geography where both these regions have been added to let the service optimize Cloud PC placement automatically for performance and resilience.
To enable the Germany West Central region:
Learn more about how Microsoft Hosted Network improves resiliency and regional coverage.
Configure provisioning policy to use the Europe geography > Germany (EU) region group > Germany West Central region.
To enable the Switzerland North region:
Configure provisioning policy to use the Europe geography > Switzerland region group > Switzerland North region.
Using Azure Network Connection (ANC)?
If you're using ANC, you stay in control of your network topology and Cloud PCs are provisioned into the virtual network (vNet) + subnet you specify.
Important: With ANC, the Azure virtual network’s region determines where the Cloud PC is created and hosted, so deploying into Germany West Central or Switzerland North requires a vNet in those regions.
To use new regions, your environment may require a quick validation/update to ensure your configuration supports provisioning in those regions.
To enable the newly available regions of Germany West Central or Switzerland North:
- Review the Azure Network Connection documentation.
- Confirm your ANC setup supports your chosen region (Germany West Central or Switzerland North), including virtual networks and necessary service endpoints.
- Once ready, adjust your provisioning policies to target your chosen region (Germany West Central or Switzerland North).
Get started
With Germany West Central and Switzerland North now available for Windows 365 Frontline in shared mode, this is a great time to bring Cloud PCs closer to your users, while keeping the service straightforward for admins to deploy and manage.
To explore configuration options and learn more about what’s possible next, head over to Windows 365 documentation.
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