Microsoft Dev Box Implementation is a 2-week, $3,950 fixed-price service that stands up Microsoft Dev Box in one Azure subscription: the dev center and projects, a Microsoft-hosted or virtual-network connection, dev box definitions and pools, a custom image or image definition, Intune enrollment and policies, auto-stop and hibernation schedules, and cost budgets with alerts. Standard scope is one subscription, one dev center and up to 500 developer users; larger estates are quoted in writing. Dev Box compute and storage are Azure consumption charges billed by Microsoft to your subscription, and the Windows Enterprise, Intune and Microsoft Entra ID P1 licenses each developer needs are yours; neither is part of the service fee. If what you need is a general-purpose desktop for every employee rather than a developer workstation, our Windows 365 Cloud PC Implementation is the alternative, and this page explains when each fits.
Microsoft Dev Box gives each developer a ready-to-code, project-specific Windows 11 workstation in Azure: high-spec compute, the toolchain and source already on the disk, Entra-joined and Intune-managed like any other company device, and created by the developer from a self-service portal instead of by a ticket. New hires and contractors are productive on day one, the laptop they bring never holds source code, and when a project ends the dev boxes are deleted rather than reclaimed. How it differs from Windows 365: a Cloud PC is a per-user, fixed-license desktop for everyday work. A dev box is consumption-billed Azure infrastructure built for build and debug workloads — larger sizes, image definitions that bake in SDKs and repositories, pools scoped to projects, and schedules that stop or hibernate boxes when nobody is coding. Pick Windows 365 when the whole company needs a managed desktop at a predictable monthly fee; pick Dev Box when the people in question are developers, data engineers or testers who need power on demand and environments that match the project. We implement both, so the recommendation in scoping follows the workload, not the service we would rather sell. During the engagement we confirm each developer already holds the Windows Enterprise, Intune and Microsoft Entra ID P1 entitlements Dev Box requires, build the dev center and projects in your subscription, connect them to the Microsoft-hosted network or to your virtual network where dev boxes must reach private repos, package feeds or test databases, define the dev box sizes and images, enroll the result in Intune under your baselines, and put the cost controls in place — auto-stop schedules, hibernation on disconnect, and Azure budgets with alerts — before developers get the keys.
Confirm developer groups, the tools and repositories each needs, where those resources live, and the pilot group. Verify Windows Enterprise, Intune and Entra ID P1 entitlements against your tenant and confirm the Azure subscription, region and quota.
Deploy the dev center and projects, assign roles to Entra ID groups, and attach either the Microsoft-hosted network or an Azure network connection to your virtual network; validate DNS and firewall paths to the private resources in scope.
Build the custom image in an Azure Compute Gallery or author the image definition in a catalog repository, then create dev box definitions per persona with the agreed size, storage and hibernation setting.
Create pools per project with auto-stop schedules and hibernation grace periods, confirm Intune enrollment and policy targeting on a first dev box, and configure the Azure budget, alerts and tags.
Pilot developers create their own dev boxes from the developer portal, run their real build and debug workflows, and confirm access to repos, feeds and test systems; we fix what the pilot surfaces.
Open the projects to the remaining in-scope developers, hand over the admin runbook (adding projects, changing definitions, rolling image versions, reading costs), and deliver the closeout report.
A licensing and readiness check, the dev center and projects in your Azure subscription, a Microsoft-hosted or virtual-network connection, dev box definitions and pools, one custom image or image definition, Intune enrollment and policy targeting, auto-stop and hibernation schedules, Azure budgets and alerts, a developer pilot, a developer quick-start guide, an admin handover and a closeout report — delivered in 2 weeks for a fixed $3,950.
Choose Windows 365 when every employee needs a managed personal desktop at a fixed per-user monthly license cost. Choose Dev Box when the users are developers, data engineers or testers who need larger sizes, project-specific images with the toolchain and repositories preloaded, self-service creation, and consumption billing that stops when boxes are hibernated or deleted. We implement both, so the scoping call recommends on workload fit.
Each developer needs Windows 10/11 Enterprise, Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Entra ID P1. Microsoft lists Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3 and A5 as including all three; Microsoft 365 F3 does not include Windows Enterprise. If your developers are on another plan, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium, we check the entitlements in your tenant at kickoff before anything is bought.
You do, through your Azure subscription. Microsoft charges hourly compute while a dev box is running and a monthly storage fee for every dev box that exists, with a monthly cap per size. Hibernated or stopped boxes do not accrue compute; storage continues until the box is deleted. The service fee covers our implementation only, and we set up budgets and alerts so the consumption line is visible from the first month.
Not always. The Microsoft-hosted network works for Entra-join-only estates whose repos, feeds and services are reachable over the internet, and it needs no networking work from you. You need an Azure network connection to your own virtual network when dev boxes must reach private resources — an on-premises Git server, a package feed behind a firewall, a test database on a private endpoint — or when they must hybrid-join on-premises Active Directory.
A custom image is a generalized Windows 11 image you build and store in an Azure Compute Gallery; it gives the fastest dev box creation but needs a rebuild whenever the toolchain changes. An image definition is a YAML file in a catalog repository that tells Dev Box which tools to install and which repositories to clone when a box is created or when the image is pre-built; it is versioned in Git and easier for the team to maintain. The engagement includes one of the two, chosen with you at kickoff.
Dev boxes are Entra-joined Windows 11 devices enrolled in Microsoft Intune, so your configuration baselines, compliance policies, Defender for Endpoint onboarding and Conditional Access rules apply to them like any other corporate device. Local administrator rights are set per pool, so a project can grant them to developers who need them and withhold them elsewhere. Source code stays on the dev box, not on the laptop that connects to it.
Each pool carries an auto-stop schedule that shuts dev boxes down at a set time each day, and pools built on a hibernation-capable image can hibernate on disconnect after a grace period. Both stop the hourly compute charge while preserving the developer's open work. We pair them with an Azure Cost Management budget and alert thresholds on the Dev Box resource group so finance sees the trend without asking IT.
Yes, and it is one of the clearest fits for the service: a contractor receives a company-managed dev box inside your tenant with the project's tools and repositories preloaded, protected by your Intune and Conditional Access policies, and nothing of yours lands on their personal machine. When the contract ends you delete the dev box and the storage charge stops with it. Each contractor still needs the same Windows Enterprise, Intune and Entra ID P1 entitlements as an employee.
The engagement is planned as 2 weeks: licensing check, dev center, network connection, image and definitions in week one; pools, Intune, cost controls, pilot and handover in week two. The usual extenders are regional quota requests, firewall approvals for a virtual-network connection, or a custom image whose installers are not silent.
The implementation is a fixed $3,950 per project for the standard scope of one Azure subscription, one dev center and up to 500 developer users, quoted in writing before work begins, and you pay after you approve delivery. The fee does not cover Microsoft's charges: Dev Box compute and storage consumption on your Azure subscription, or the Windows Enterprise, Intune and Entra ID P1 licensing each developer needs. Larger estates are quoted in writing.
Dev Box compute and storage consumption, Microsoft licenses, Windows 365 deployment for the wider workforce, more than one image or image definition, building or migrating the repositories and pipelines the dev boxes connect to, new VPN or ExpressRoute connectivity, and ongoing administration after handover.
Your administrators receive the runbook for adding projects, changing definitions, rolling image versions and reading the cost report, plus the closeout report. From there you run the estate yourself or hand day-2 administration to us under a managed-services agreement. There is no lock-in: the dev center, images, policies and consumption all live in your subscription and tenant.