This is common, but Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is increasingly common currently. The only novel thing about Amazon's program is that the server is in EC2 in

This is common, but Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is increasingly common currently. The only novel thing about Amazon's program is that the server is in EC2 instead of the corporate server closet. As I understand it, some of the motivators are: 1) The image is immutable (by normal users). Each startup is clean, so the potential to screw up your install is very low. Only user folders (redirected to network storage via GPO) persist. 2) You can indeed use thin clients, i.e. http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CITWr57V4roCFQVgMgodfl4AMQ&Item=9B-59-222-087&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBiz&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBiz-_-pla-_-Thin+Client+Systems-_-9B-59-222-087&ef_id=UoPpowAABNx6jQGo:20131113210539:s http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=CIT... with VDI. You can also use old/underpowered/very cheap PCs. 3) Unlike an RDP setup, each user has their own OS instance so you don't have concurrency issues. 4) Windows Server and User/Device CALs are indeed very expensive. However, license costs for the clients are not even slightly relevant because mainstream desktop/laptop hardware comes with mandatory OEM licensing anyway and large businesses are not typically building their own PCs.