AWS launches user-based subscription of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services

Today, AWS announces the general availability of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services with AWS provided licenses. Customers can now purchase user-based subscription of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services licenses directly from AWS. This new offering provides licensing flexibility and business continuity for customers running graphical user interface (GUI) based applications on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Windows instances.

Thousands of customers use Windows Server on Amazon EC2 to host custom applications or independent software vendor (ISV) products that require remote connectivity via Microsoft Remote Desktop Services. Previously, customers had to procure the licenses through various Microsoft licensing agreements. With the AWS provided subscription, customers can now access Microsoft Remote Desktop Services licenses from AWS on a per-user, per-month basis, eliminating the need for separate licensing agreements and reducing operational overhead. Unlike AWS provided Microsoft Office and Visual Studio, customers can continue using their existing Active Directory(s) for managing user access to GUI-based applications on Amazon EC2. Moreover, customers can have more than two concurrent user sessions with Windows Server instances. Lastly, AWS License Manager enables centralized tracking for license usage, simplifying governance and cost management. Customers can start using AWS provided Microsoft Remote Desktop Services licenses without rebuilding their existing Amazon EC2 instances, providing a seamless migration path for existing workloads.

AWS provided user-based subscription of Microsoft Remote Desktop Services license is available in all AWS Regions currently License Manager supports. For further questions, visit the user guide. To learn more and get started, visit here.