Optimize on-premises monthly update delivery using the cloud

Thank you The_Smart_One for asking about optimization.  As you have correctly pointed out in your question, VPN traffic speeds may be higher or lower than Internet traffic.  Depending on network configuration, your assertion that VPN is faster may be true.  What I did not detail in the article is the extensive work Microsoft has done on the infrastructure supporting Internet delivery of updates to clients (PC’s).  Over the past 5 years, Microsoft has rearchitected our Windows Update Services and the Servicing stack within the OS to be able to deliver the minimum package needed for the device/machine.  That, in addition to a global network of CDN’s for that Service, result in internet latency is largely minimized to client devices.  We often see VPN network architecture have significant round trip latency when remote workers have a near-by Microsoft CDN for the Windows Update Service much closer. While I won’t go into all of the ways Windows has an optimized delivery, I can tell you that we see considerable benefit to internet-direct connects to the Windows Update Service for remote workers that far outweigh going through corporate VPN services. Perhaps to your question we should call these out in more detail to better clarify the optimizations that connecting to the cloud presents. Again, thank you for your question/feedback! 🙂