Kevin Bland, Citrix director of channel sales for UK & Ireland, makes no secret of the fact he has demonstrated the merits of desktop virtualisation to quite a few people by showing them his iPad running Windows 7. Well, sorry to say this Kevin, but it looks like Microsoft is planning to spoil your party piece when it comes to Windows 8 (unless you’re prepared to cough up an extra $100 or buy a new tablet).
According to a report in CRN, Microsoft is set to penalise companies that remotely access Windows 8 virtual desktops using tablets that don’t run Windows by making it more expensive for them to do so. Basically that’s all tablets today because it covers the likes of iOS (iPad) and Android (everything else).
To do this, Microsoft is creating a new optional add-on to its Software Assurance volume licensing agreement, charging customers a fee for the right to access corporate desktops using virtual desktop infrastructure. This add-on, known as the Companion Device Licence (CDL), does not exist for Windows 7 (perhaps because, until now, there haven’t been any Windows tablets).
But now, by happy coincidence, the extra charge is being prepared just in time for the emergence of Window-based tablets that will be exempt. Incidentally, those businesses using tablets based on Windows RT, the edition that will be used on tablets with ARM processors, will also be exempt from the charge.
My initial reaction was to think: "Ah well, looks like you can’t teach an old, anti-competitive dog new tricks after all." Now I know there’s probably someone, somewhere in Microsoft who thinks he or she has been very clever by introducing this essentially anti-competitive licensing change, but I’m not so sure they’re that sharp after all. The Windows Tax worked well on desktop PCs and notebooks because there was, to all intents and purposes, no viable alternative available. But there’s a difference between implementing a Windows lockdown on the desktop and trying to do something similar at a device level where Windows’ presence is miniscule.
The fact is there are probably too many Android and iOS devices already in circulation for this type of ploy to work. Then there’s the fact that the people pushing to gain access to the corporate desktop environment with these devices are, primarily, those at the higher echelons of the business or out in the field. I don’t think they will take kindly to being dictated to by Microsoft as to which device they should use to remotely access their virtualised infrastructure.
In addition, the wider bring your own device (BYOD) trend is predicated on employees using their own preferred devices in a corporate environment. Again, I don’t think businesses will be happy if Microsoft starts slapping a $100 tax on them and their employees for the privilege of accessing its virtualised Windows environment with their own devices.
Another potentially more significant issue concerns Windows 8 itself. Just what is the incentive for businesses to upgrade from Windows 7? Personally, I’m not sure the whole Metro/tile user interface will go down that well with corporates, so I’m left to ponder on whether introducing a disincentive for them to migrate by making it more expensive and disruptive for existing device users to access virtualised Windows environments is the masterstroke some might think it is.
Surely Microsoft should be making it as easy and painless as possible for devices to plug into its Windows infrastructure, including virtualised environments, rather than adding another layer of complexity and cost for customers while trying to impose limitations on the devices they can use?
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