Back in April, Microsoft announced a new service called Microsoft 365 Frontline. It allowed businesses to offer Cloud PC (CPC) services to their employees who work part-time, or who work remotely outside the office. Today, the company revealed that Microsoft 365 Frontline is now generally available to all business customers after a brief public preview period.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated:
During preview, companies have been using Windows 365 Frontline already across an expansive list of scenarios and industries for a variety of cases where employees need access to their Cloud PC for a limited period of time—cases like healthcare clinicians, consultants, customer service representatives, and more.
Microsoft 365 Frontline customers can buy a certain number of Cloud PC licenses that can be shared among remote or part-time employees who don't work at the same time. The company says:
As employees log on, the Frontline Cloud PC is powered on and a license is used for the duration of their work. As they log off, the shared license is returned to the pool of shared licenses, and their Frontline Cloud PC is powered off. Any of the users within a defined group can access their Frontline Cloud PC without requiring a set schedule.
IT admins can also see which of the company's employees accessed a Frontline Cloud PC and which ones did not by viewing the provisioning policy after creation.
The company plans to add new features to Microsoft 365 Frontline in the near future. One of them will allow IT admins to set up automatic email alerts when their Cloud PCs are getting close to their maximum concurrent users. This will allow those admins to buy more Cloud PC licenses if they are needed. Those same admins will also be able to power up or power down Cloud PCs in bulk in the coming months.
