“The Attic” Video Podcast Episode 7: How a startup community mindset is changing the future of EUC with Christiaan Brinkhoff

Our latest one-to-one chat with Christiaan Brinkhoff, Principal Product Manager and Community Lead, Microsoft Windows 365 Cloud PC, is a milestone in our evolving Attic video series:  unlike many of the veteran experts we’ve had on the show, Christiaan is a young, rising star and the first whose life has been entirely connected to a cell phone. He is one of Microsoft’s most dynamic evangelists for Windows in the cloud and a key influencer, blogger, author, and in-demand speaker. EUC is in the midst of a wave of innovation so it’s great to have on someone with Christiaan’s perspectives.

Christiaan became interested in computing around the age of 12 when he took apart his first PC, a Pentium 3, swapping it out for a cooler one with a transparent LED side panel. As a 14-year-old entrepreneur he built websites, then owned a computer service shop. With degrees in computer science and IT management, Christiaan later worked for an MSP, and as a consultant, focusing on Citrix and VMware. It sparked his career long passion for cloud and desktop virtualization.

His cloud experience prompted an offer from FSLogix which was developing Cloud Cache. Christiaan was hired as a technical evangelist and cloud solutions architect, leveraging his community visibility in the VDI space to introduce the product to a global audience. When FSLogix was sold to Microsoft in 2020, Christiaan moved with the team to Microsoft, and initially focused on helping integrate and educate the Microsoft teams and customers on FSLogix. Now, as part of the Windows 365 engineering team he is wearing two hats, shipping Windows product features and sharing tips and ideas to help evangelize the Windows 365 community mindset.

Christiaan and IGEL share a deep belief in moving Windows to the cloud and the value of Linux in facilitating Windows 365 Cloud PC. Tune in and hear Christiaan talk about the impact Windows 365 is making in the EUC community. Having re-located from the Netherlands to Redmond, Christiaan also has a fun story to tell about his newborn child’s passport.

On Cloud Computing. “The future is connecting to a cloud PC environment as the need to have your resources locally becomes less relevant. Cloud PCs run in the cloud so you can [scale] by purchasing another license and pay for that time. Some Windows 365 early adopters are spinning up 3,000 to 4,000 cloud PCs in a day.”

On Hardware Limitations: “Over the last 30 years you always had to purchase a new laptop to do that [EUC]. That flexibility that you get from the cloud right now is really game changing.”

On Microsoft Culture: “People from the outside think that Microsoft is the complete opposite of a startup but Microsoft has a community, and as well, a startup kind of mindset. Even in a big company like Microsoft you can still be a smaller team and create a startup culture.”

Watch Episode 7 Here:

Thanks for stopping by The Attic. Join us again next time for more insightful conversations. Some of our upcoming guests include Tarkan Maner, chief commercial officer, Nutanix.

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