But this has been a reality for a while. It's just that microsoft is getting into that space. I've been looking at getting a Shadow for a while.
-wraith808
You should check the viability of their business plan. I heard Linus form video channel Linus Tech Tips mention that Shadow isn't a financially sound organization. I believe that was in his weekly talking head-piece...in the week that he did a review of similar services. More of a place that over-promises and under-delivers. The videos he creates are usually sponsored and likely Shadow didn't fulfill their contractual financial obligations.
Better, to get a very "beefy" server that can act as file server and gaming computer. Apparently you can get pretty long extension cables, so the server can be centrally stored while you can divide up the "beefiness" from the server up to multiple workstations/terminals in the house. One place to install games/tools, while assigning sufficient hardware to workstations/terminals in the house.
Very little amount of cabling needing to go through the house (but the cabling that needs to go through the house is expensive, in case you want 4k support everywhere), that usually gets the 'partner approved'-stamp quickly. Added bonus, drastic noise reduction at all the workstations and/or terminals in the house. Yet there is barely any extra latency (hence the price tag on the cabling) between video output and user input.
Sure, initial costs are prohibitive, but will last you longer, will be far more reliable and enjoyable for gaming and you reduced the amount of "rent-seekers" on your disposable income. I found that having way less of those has a very beneficial effect on your (mental) well-being. The comfort-level these services try to lure you with is, more often than not, not worth the costs.
Feel the same about the Microsoft Windows 365 product. Companies that might think they need it, they still need a desk, a seat and office space for the person that uses their Windows in the cloud. Those persons also still need a little bit of hardware. The extra costs of purchase, maintenance and energy of that low-end hardware won't be that much of an issue. And it is not like you can do away with the IT department completely, so it doesn't save much, especially with the off-set of the extra costs you (as a company) now need to pay to Microsoft. And if you need to pay according to usage, not a set amount, there is a significant chance it might end up being more expensive.
A solution in search of a problem. I'm sure that all of the above sound like I'm an anti-cloud person. There are many cloud-projects that I like/enjoy, but if I can run such projects on my own hardware, I'm more inclined to do that. A nice learning opportunity and most do not require that powerful hardware for small(er) organizations. A re-purposed old computer or (rack-)server is easily deployed as machine that runs these new services more than adequately, depending on the period of writing computing equipment off.
