During tax season the assessor’s office hires temporary staff who need full Windows desktops with installed apps without shipping laptops to every hire. Which AWS service provides managed virtual desktops?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
WorkSpaces is a rented desk in the cloud — seasonal workers log in, get a full desktop, and the city skips overnight laptop shipping. Lambda is for short functions, S3 Object Lambda tweaks file downloads, and CloudFront caches websites; none hand someone a Windows desktop.
Full Explanation
During tax season, when the assessor's office hires temporary staff who need full Windows desktops with installed apps—without shipping laptops to every hire—Amazon WorkSpaces provides managed cloud virtual desktops delivered to users. Workers authenticate and receive a persistent desktop experience hosted in AWS, which fits seasonal civic workforce surges and remote assessor staff without logistics nightmares around hardware deployment.
AWS Lambda runs short-lived functions without a persistent desktop environment; it cannot replace a full Windows desktop for office applications. Amazon S3 Object Lambda transforms objects on download; it is not a VDI product. Amazon CloudFront caches static website content; CDN delivery is not a desktop. Compute, object transform, and CDN services fail the managed virtual desktop requirement.
Exam caveat: WorkSpaces = managed virtual desktops; AppStream 2.0 = application streaming to browsers/thin clients (often without a full persistent personal desktop); WorkDocs is file collaboration. Seasonal staff needing full desktops → WorkSpaces.
Operational check for tax season: provision WorkSpaces bundles with required assessor apps, join to directory services per design, apply security groups and controlled egress, enable MFA, set storage encryption, define start/stop schedules to control cost between shifts, reclaim desktops when temporary contracts end, and verify that staff can access property systems only through approved paths.