Every new contractor costs you a laptop, two weeks, and a coin flip on whether you get it back.

Cloud Life builds cloud desktops on AWS, so a new person is working the same day, on whatever device they already own, with nothing to ship and nothing to recover.

We're an AWS Advanced Tier Partner with the Digital Workplace Competency. We've built this for staffing agencies, global consumer brands, school districts, law firms, and hospitals.

Book a 20-minute scoping call See what we actually build

No pitch deck. We ask how many people, what they need to reach, and what your directory looks like, then tell you whether this fits.

AWS Advanced Tier PartnerDigital Workplace CompetencyBuilding on AWS since 2013

Contractor onboarding, last quarterdevice ledger

Design contractor

Manila · 6-month engagement

Never returned

Laptop shipped day 3Productive day 11

Support contractor

Bogotá · 90-day engagement

Returned, 7 weeks late

Laptop shipped day 2Productive day 9

Seasonal staff ×40

Three states · 11-week peak

6 unaccounted

Imaged over 2 weeksRetrieval ongoing

Same three, on WorkSpaces

Their own devices · your Active Directory

Nothing to recover

Access granted day 0Productive day 0Offboarded in seconds

Illustrative. The pattern is not. It's why TOMS and Culinary Staffing called us.

The desktop lives in AWS. The device becomes a window.

Each person gets a full Windows or Linux desktop (their apps, their files, their settings) running in your AWS account and reachable from a browser or a client on almost anything: a company laptop, a personal machine, a thin client, a five-year-old device that was due for replacement. Nothing sensitive is stored on the endpoint.

When someone only needs one application rather than a whole desktop, Amazon AppStream 2.0 streams that single application to them instead. Same idea, smaller surface. Useful for licence-restricted software, heavy engineering tools, and giving partners access to one thing without handing them a desktop.

Both are AWS-managed services. What we do is make them work with the identity, network, and applications you already have.

Two companies that stopped shipping hardware

Both came to us with the same problem in different clothes: the ability to hire had outrun the ability to hand someone a computer.

TOMS

Global consumer brand · international contractors

Contractors working on day one, in every market, with nothing shipped

Shipping hardware across borders meant delays, inventory discrepancies, and equipment that never came back. We deployed Amazon WorkSpaces with AWS Directory Service and AD Connector, extending the Active Directory TOMS already ran, plus IAM for access control.

Their team called our approach proactive, with deep knowledge of AWS services.

Chris Cournoyer, Global Infrastructure Manager, TOMS

40%Operational efficiency improvement

25%Cost reduction

35%Saved on initial implementation

Read the TOMS case study →

Culinary Staffing

2,000+ employee foodservice staffing agency

A dispersed 2,000-person workforce, without a laptop for each one

Deploying and supporting physical machines across a constantly rotating workforce was consuming capital and IT time the business could not spare. We deployed Amazon WorkSpaces across two Availability Zones in private subnets, with NAT gateways and a VPN connection back to their corporate systems.

Their COO called it a game-changer for our bottom line and IT operations.

Jessica Seastead, Chief Operating Officer, Culinary Staffing

25%Hardware cost reduction

60%Decrease in IT hardware workload

Read the Culinary Staffing case study →

We've also delivered End User Computing across education, financial services, legal, engineering, energy, healthcare, and automotive, including migrating a customer's virtual desktop estate off Azure onto Amazon WorkSpaces.

Four reasons companies call us

Most arrive with one of these. A few have all four and have been putting it off for a year.

People you can't hand a laptop to

Contractors, seasonal staff, offshore teams, agency placements. They get a working desktop the day they start, wherever they are, and it disappears when the engagement ends.

No procurement, no shipping, no retrieval

Personal devices, without losing control

People work from their own machines while the environment and the data stay in AWS. A lost laptop is a lost window. Access is revoked centrally the moment someone leaves.

Easier to defend in an audit than a fleet of endpoints

One heavy application, anywhere

Stream a single application to any device instead of specifying a machine that can run it locally. Engineering, analysis, and legacy Windows software delivered to whatever's in front of the user.

Amazon AppStream 2.0

Desktops that scale like your headcount

Spin up for a seasonal peak, spin down after. Pay by use rather than buying for the busiest month of the year and storing hardware for the other eleven.

Bundle and running-mode matched to real usage

A desktop project is a networking and identity project

Anyone can turn on WorkSpaces. The reason self-managed deployments stall is everything underneath it. This is the part we do.

Environment designWorkSpaces deployed across multiple Availability Zones in private subnets, with NAT gateways for controlled outbound traffic.
Identity integrationAWS Directory Service and AD Connector extending the Active Directory you already run, so user management stays where IT already manages it. For TOMS this was the difference between a demo and a deployment.
Access controlIAM policies governing who reaches what, and from where.
ConnectivityVPN or Direct Connect linking desktops back to corporate systems, file shares, and line-of-business applications.
Images and bundle sizingBuilding the standard desktop image, choosing the right bundles, and keeping images current without you maintaining a second build pipeline.
Cost engineeringMatching bundle types and running modes to how people actually work. This is where most self-managed deployments quietly overspend.
Ongoing operationBecause someone has to run it after launch.

Short version: we make cloud desktops work with the identity, network, and applications you already have. Not a licence resale, not helpdesk, not a strategy deck. The deliverable is a working environment.

Already in a WorkSpaces trial that's gone quiet?

Trials stall in the same three places, every time. If you've got an environment up and it isn't going anywhere, that's a shorter conversation than starting cold. Most of the work is unblocking what's already there.

Active Directory integrationBundle sizingCost creeping up, not down

Get the trial unstuck

Windows 10 ESU Year 1 ends October 13, 2026

You don't have to buy new computers to run a supported version of Windows.

Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025. Year 1 of Extended Security Updates ends October 13, 2026. Businesses can buy Year 2 and Year 3 after that, but the per-device price doubles each year and the years are cumulative, so entering late means paying for the years you skipped. There are three ways out.

Buy new hardware

Replace every machine that can't run Windows 11. Solves it for one cycle, then you do it again in four years.

Capital purchase · procurement lead time · the same decision in 2030

Buy another year of ESU

Year 2 runs to October 2027 and Year 3 to October 2028, at roughly double the per-device price each year. Buys time and changes nothing about the underlying position.

Recurring cost · doubles each year · cumulative if you enter late · ends for good in October 2028

Move the desktop off the endpoint

Run a current, patched, centrally managed Windows desktop in AWS and reach it from the machines you already own. The old hardware becomes a terminal.

Refresh budget shrinks or disappears · patching becomes central · the OS stops being tied to the device

The third option is the one nobody frames for you, and it's usually the cheapest. A machine that can't run Windows 11 can still run a browser, and that's all it needs to do. We wrote up how the migration works in practice: Windows 10 end-of-support and the move to Amazon WorkSpaces →

Whether this is worth your time

Being straight about the fit costs us a few calls and saves everyone a wasted quarter.

Worth a conversation

Enough people that provisioning and recovering machines is a recurring cost
A specific delivery problem: contractors, distributed staff, BYOD, an aging fleet, or specialized software
An existing directory service the environment has to integrate with
An IT team that's small relative to the number of people it supports
A reason to move on a timeline: a deadline, a renewal, a hiring ramp, or an expansion
Already on AWS, or open to it
United States or Canada

Probably not us

You want device management, helpdesk, or general IT support
Graphics-heavy creative or engineering workstations. That's our GPU virtual desktops offer, and it's a different build
Committed to Azure Virtual Desktop or Windows 365 with no interest in evaluating alternatives
A mature in-house VDI team with no renewal or deadline pressure
No budget cycle inside the next twelve months

Twenty minutes, and you'll know if this fits

A scoping conversation with an engineer who has built these, not a discovery call with a salesperson. Here's exactly what happens on it:

How many people, and what they need to reach
What your directory and network look like today
Whether WorkSpaces, AppStream, or both fits, and why
The rough shape of the build, and what would make it go wrong
Whether you're better off doing it yourself, which we'll say if it's true

Not ready for a call? Email sales@cloudlife.io and we'll answer in writing.

20 minutes · with an engineer

Pick a time that works

Open calendar, real availability this week. Bring a rough headcount if you have one; it's the first thing we'll ask.

Book a scoping call

No sequence, no newsletter, no deck.

Not ready for a call? Send the details and we'll reply in writing.

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Cloud Life Consulting · AWS Advanced Tier Partner · Digital Workplace Competency