Today we announced Windows 365, a cloud service that introduces a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11. Windows 365 takes the operating system to the Microsoft cloud, streaming the full Windows experience—including your apps, content, and settings—to any device. Windows 365 also creates a new hybrid personal computing category called cloud PC, which uses both the power of the cloud and the capabilities of the device to provide a full, personalized Windows experience.
As Partner Director with over 20 years of experience at Microsoft, I've worked on many projects and built many different products and services. For the last two years I've been leading the team of engineers to develop Windows 365. Through the process, I've spoken with customers, relied on the inputs of colleagues and applied all my industry knowledge to build this solution. I'm excited about the many features and capabilities we've put into Windows 365.
Although we've built an end-to-end solution with Windows 365, we know that our partners are always able to find new ways to expand and extend Microsoft services. To support our partners, extensibility via Graph APIs is a core design principle of Windows 365.
Over the last 12 months, we began working with four different ISVs during a private service preview. These companies were chosen because of the consistent innovations they've developed and because of their own unique perspectives. We gave them an overview of our product strategy, provided access to the preview service and Graph APIs, and then watched them get to work.
Here's a look at the four ISVs and what they've built:
Nerdio
Nerdio provides deployment, management, and optimization services that simplify Azure deployments and empower Managed Services Providers and IT Professionals to be successful with Windows 365. Microsoft has worked closely with Nerdio to expand their Nerdio Manager for MSP and Nerdio Manager for Enterprise products to make it even easier for MSPs and IT professionals to deploy and manage Windows 365 with ease.
With Nerdio, MSPs and enterprises of all sizes can facilitate the pricing, design, deployment, and management of cloud PCs from a central console. MSPs and enterprise organizations can use Nerdio Manager to roll out Windows 365 environments to individual customers or across multiple tenants.
UKG
UKG is a leading global provider of Human Capital Management (HCM), payroll, HR service delivery, and workforce management solutions that help companies create great work experiences for all employees.
UKG has now expanded their signature UKG Pro solution to make the process of delivering Windows 365 to employees even simpler. Through the service, when HR enters the new hire's information in UKG Pro, a workflow is launched that results in a fully provisioned cloud PC delivered directly to the employee. Similarly, when employees leave the company and their credentials are revoked, UKG Pro and Windows 365 return that cloud PC to inventory, ready for the next person.
ServiceNow
ServiceNow enables organizations to create digital workflows that optimize how business gets done.
Working with Microsoft, the ServiceNow team has integrated Windows 365 and Microsoft Teams with their ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) solution. Through this integration, end users themselves can request cloud PCs through the familiar interface of Microsoft Teams. The platform automates the workflow to collect the necessary approvals, provision the machines, and deliver the cloud PCs to the end users. Through this automation, IT saves time and end users get access to the resources they need, all through a system that provides regular status updates.
NetApp
NetApp is a Microsoft Partner that gives managed services providers (MSPs) the tools they need to provision, deploy, manage, and troubleshoot virtual infrastructure. Spot PC by NetApp gives MSPs a powerful, single-pane-of-glass through which they can manage Windows 365 instances. This software as a service (SaaS) offering blends the power of Windows 365 with NetApp's enterprise-class infrastructure management so that MSPs can deliver highly available, scalable, and performant cloud PCs that meet their clients' needs—in minutes. MSPs can manage their entire customer base of cloud PCs through a single partner dashboard with full multi-tenant security, from which they can drill down into any given tenant to correct performance issues, troubleshoot problems, and allocate new cloud PC instances.
Excitement for what's to come
I'm excited about the great work these partners have done. They've helped Windows 365 integrate with popular tools and solutions to meet customers where they are. Now that we've launched Windows 365, the same Graph APIs used by these partners are available to everyone. You can find these resources here on Microsoft Docs. I look forward to seeing the next set of services that will be built by our partner ecosystem.
