I have talked about the theory of the “Cloud desktop” twice on my older blog (Rackspace’s Hosted Virtual Desktop and More on the desktop in the cloud) way back since 2011. Since then, a few things have changed:
- Amazon have released AWS Workspaces, which is a cloud based desktop using Teradici’s PCoIP technology
- Both EC2 and Azure now have GPU enabled VMs to spin up and use
- NVidia have released NVidia Grid cards, specifically for the “cloud” or “remote” desktop services.
- Windows Continuum now allows you to use your Windows Phone with a keyboard, monitor and mouse, allowing you to replace your desktop. basically, plug your continuum enabled phone into a docking station, and use it as a Windows Desktop. Email, Browsing, Office Apps, etc. anything that supports UWP.
- and now VMWare has just released a Windows UWP app that works with Continuum
With all the increased bandwidth for mobile devices (4 and 5G, expanding wifi, etc) the idea of having your desktop live in the cloud is getting nearer… interesting times, my friend… interesting times…
[Update] Thinking a bit more about this, and if this was to work correctly, your phone could be everything required. Get up in the morning, check your emails on your phone, calander items, and news. head off, head to the coffee shop and plug your phone into a “laptop” style device like a NexDock and catch up on some emails, checking more news sites, etc. When you get into the office, plug your phone into the docking station and Remote Desktop in to your cloud desktop to do your development work, or whatever needs to be done. basic Office apps and Email can be run direct from the phone. When you get home, you can use the Microsoft Wireless Display adapter to watch videos on the big TV, or show web pages. And if your cloud desktop is available outside of your work network, you could work anywhere also…
