Install software in the cloud

Question

Is there a way to have a windows xp running in the cloud and install software on it that more people in the organization can use? This in order to reduce the money spent on licenses for more developers

Answer 1

While you can install Windows and other software in the cloud depending on what cloud service you use, you will need people to access the server that your software is on to use it.

In order to install software on a cloud or remote computer and give access to multiple developers, you will need to install multiple copies of Windows and multiple copies of the Developer Software, which defeats the purpose. Otherwise, you will have multiple developers accessing one machines remotely which is no where near an ideal solution and probably won't even work like you want. The only time this would make any sense, is if you have developers who have 0 overlap in work time. Then you could have them use the same software.

Remember, if software costs money, then the people selling will probably not want to have a situation where someone can do an end run around their licensing scheme in order to save large quantities of money.

Another option is to look at what software you plan on using. Many software IDEs are free and work well, like Eclipse. Other like Visual Studio, cost a decent amount of money but there are cost effective solutions for them as well. Specifically, MSDN licensing, which seems expensive at first but you get a large amount of software, including multiple versions of Windows and the cost drops off significantly after the first year.

Answer 2

You can use RDP to connect to a remote Windows instance and display it locally. The thin client can be another Windows machine, or a Linux machine that supports RDP.

Note that Windows XP does not support multiple logins via RDP, you will need Windows Server Edition for that.