Microsoft Dev Box is a developer-focused workstation residing in the cloud. This gives programmers easier access to the tools and hardware they need to be productive.

It kind of reminds us of a commercial. Visualize for a moment. Before that, in black and white, we see programmers with miserable faces struggling in a workplace that no longer suits their current needs. The world is changing too fast for companies to build the hardware it needs, and our developers are groaning. Everything is too slow. The company goes bankrupt, a dog howls in the distance. A programmer wipes away a tear.

Today everything is better in bright colors. The developers laugh. Maybe one is holding a cooing baby and another a purring cat. Logical: Microsoft launched Dev Box and all the misery of black and white fantasy is forgotten.

VDI for developers

Microsoft Dev Box is a cloud service that gives our developers access to the tools they need without having to worry about configuring and maintaining their workstations – a task that Microsoft says is terrible and hardly feasible in a modern company .

Ultimately, dev boxes are just VDI environments that teams can easily configure based on the work they want to do. Within minutes, an environment suitable for building the desired application is ready. The solution can be integrated into Windows 365 and the Endpoint Manager like classic workstations. Aren’t they managed the same way as physical endpoints? Ssssst. This is in the cloud, so it must be better.

One dev box per environment

Of course, there are real tangible benefits. For example, you can configure different dev box images for different apps, each with the right tools and dependencies to do the work you want. This is more convenient than a mixed environment where you create different applications.

Developers can create or delete their dev boxes through a dedicated portal. The biggest benefit is that projects stay separate and you can actually use one virtual workspace per project. This is particularly useful for legacy apps for which you can configure a legacy dev box.

Enough choice

Dev Box VDIs support any tool, IDE, or SDK compatible with Windows, including the Windows Subsystem for Linux. As with any other VDI solution, it doesn’t matter what device you access the Dev Box from. This can even be done from a mobile device or through a browser.

You enable and disable Dev Boxes when you need them, and when it’s bedtime, things automatically go to sleep mode. That should reduce costs. Microsoft Dev Box is available now.

We’ve updated this article with the latest information.