Top marks for desktop transformation

Delivering a modern workspace
Top marks for desktop transformation xtravirt case study

The customer

This organisation is a group of further education colleges that was created in 2017, following the merger of two of London’s leading colleges. They offer education and training in almost all vocational areas at a variety of levels for a wide range of learners.

The situation

  • The merger of two colleges was placing pressure on the current desktop estate due to the combining of the two infrastructures
  • Running Windows 7 Desktop, the existing desktop estate was end of life and unsupportable
  • The 2,000 end points were becoming increasingly difficult to manage and adapt to the changing requirements of the various faculties
  • Future expansion was constrained as the current infrastructure was not scalable
  • Essential requirements of a new solution included providing active site availability, remote access and scalability

Our approach

  • Xtravirt consultants led the assessment, design and implementation of a complete desktop transformation across both campus sites to unify and modernise the infrastructure
  • Technical solutions designed and implemented included:
    • Design and implementation of VMware Horizon View and supporting infrastructure
    • Design and implementation of VMware vSAN storage solution
    • Design of new IP network architecture for existing sites and planned expansion

Outcomes achieved

  • Unified, modernised, scalable desktop solution across both campus sites
  • Reduced risk and cost savings: Legacy applications brought up to date, improving business continuity and reducing maintenance costs
  • Improved interoperability: a fully integrated and VMware® validated EUC solution has enabled a highly optimised environment
  • Scalability: the new workspace platform enables significantly increased expansion capability for relatively little additional cost
  • Modernised infrastructure: New virtual infrastructure for EUC on a modern hyperconverged environment with end user workload upgraded to Windows 10 VDI environment utilising features from VMware Horizon Enterprise Edition