During March 2017, Microsoft released the announcement which allow customers to run Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 in Azure for dev/test propose only!

To do so you must have Visual Studio Subscription (MSDN) which licensed by user and Azure account.

The Windows Client can be used on customer’s hardware premises or in Azure virtual machines running in any type of Azure subscription.

Please note that the current announcement does not allow users to deploy Windows Client on Azure in Production environments or to use by users who are not licensed with Visual Studio Subscription.

This is a major step toward full cloud desktop in licensing and in deployment for Microsoft customers and mainly to Enterprise Agreement customers which offers by Microsoft to by the latest suite Secure Productive Enterprise (SPE).

As it seems now, In the near future Windows Client will join to Microsoft Office 365 E3/E5 and to EMS (Enterprise Mobility + Security) as an on-line service to allow customers to deploy full Enterprise Desktop in full cloud environment.

The licensing roles may be updated and slightly change once this solution will be allowed to use in production environments but most probably will maintain the licensing method of “per user” and will be paid as subscription model