Abstract and introduction

Publication date: August 3, 2022 (Document revisions)

Abstract

Today’s business world relies heavily upon the heritage of business applications that are interacted with by users and that were created over the last 30+ years using the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS). Over time, these business applications are being replaced with alternatives. However, organizations still depend on the functionality provided by the Windows OS, and these applications are often challenging to efficiently deliver at scale using the Windows operating system. This paper outlines approaches to bring efficiency to the management of an end user Windows application portfolio delivered using Amazon Web Services’ End User Computing (AWS EUC) services.

Are you Well-Architected?

The AWS Well-Architected Framework helps you understand the pros and cons of the decisions you make when building systems in the cloud. The six pillars of the Framework allow you to learn architectural best practices for designing and operating reliable, secure, efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable systems. Using the AWS Well-Architected Tool, available at no charge in the AWS Management Console, you can review your workloads against these best practices by answering a set of questions for each pillar.

For more expert guidance and best practices for your cloud architecture—reference architecture deployments, diagrams, and whitepapers—refer to the AWS Architecture Center.

Introduction

At the start of 2022, AWS offered two managed services that deliver Windows applications to end users: Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon AppStream 2.0.

WorkSpaces is a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution that helps customers build scalable and secure cloud-based desktops for any number of users. AppStream 2.0 is a fully-managed, secure application streaming service that allows customers to stream desktop applications from AWS to a web browser. AppStream 2.0 provides users with instant-on access to the applications they need with a responsive, fluid user experience on the device of their choice.

Both of these services share the same basic premise: they provide an environment upon which Windows applications are launched and interacted with by remote users. While there are differences in the underlying architectures of these services, the shared components create commonality when you consider the run time environments and software components that are required to support their delivery.

This document outlines challenges associated with Windows end user application delivery and the source of these problems. It provides a taxonomy and outlines factors aligned to the AWS Well-Architected Framework that affect application delivery. Finally, it defines a set of approaches that you can use to guide the choice of optimum application delivery. The provided taxonomy and approaches help to inform the decision-making process that needs to be considered when determining the approach to deliver different types of software binaries that need to be delivered from either the Amazon WorkSpaces or Amazon AppStream 2.0 service.