During the COVID-19 epidemic, many companies struggled to handle the increased demand for remote access and connectivity. With employees forced to work from home, the limitations of on-premises infrastructure became evident: server malfunctions, connectivity disruptions, and inefficiencies in performance.
For many organizations, this period highlighted the urgent need to transition to cloud-based solutions to ensure business continuity and scalability. This was particularly true for JourneyTeam’s customer, Wiley|Wilson, a full-service architecture and engineering firm with five sites across the Mideast and Southeast US. The firm experienced severe strain on their on-premises systems, which led them to seek a more reliable and scalable solution in the cloud and a partnership with JourneyTeam.
Old Infrastructure, New Challenges
For years, Wiley|Wilson had been using a Citrix virtual desktop environment with VMWare. As an architectural design firm, the company ran graphics-intensive programs and owned their on-premises hardware and software environment. But the system was susceptible to malfunctions and breakdowns, causing disruptions in server performance, connectivity, and efficiency, and it became even more problematic during Covid.
The tipping point came when Citrix gave Wiley|Wilson an expensive ultimatum to maintain their on-premises environment: increased renewal costs based on the small total machine count. “Managing and maintaining a private datacenter as we scaled up was just not cost effective, Azure was the best way we’d be able to get the right solution,” said Ron Smiley, a Wiley|Wilson VP and Chief Technology Officer.
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Learn how Wiley|Wilson achieved operational and cost savings with Azure
The JourneyTeam Partnership
Wiley|Wilson had collaborated with JourneyTeam on a successful CRM implementation less than a year ago and again reached out to JourneyTeam to help with the migration effort. “We’ve had several partners in the past and JourneyTeam is the one that we keep coming back to, and the one that I trust because they do it right the first time,” Smiley said. “We were eager to work with JourneyTeam again.”
An End-to-end Azure Solution That Scales
The process of migrating from the company’s on-premises environment to Azure Virtual Desktop involved extensive planning and mapping to ensure the setup could handle resource-intensive CAD and BIM software with the necessary graphical power and low latency.
That included sizing and fine tuning the Azure VM with GPU capabilities, as well as implementing Azure Files for high-performance file storage. Finally, Azure host pools, which provide a robust framework for delivering virtual desktops and applications efficiently, were configured and optimized for CAD/BIM.
On the security side, JourneyTeam conducted in-depth analysis of usage and data patterns and deployed Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) to manage user identities and cloud resource access. Wiley|Wilson’s users now have a single sign-on experience and IT is confident that only authorized individuals can access sensitive data. Lastly, JourneyTeam optimized and future-proofed their Azure environment with monitoring tools, disaster recovery, automated backups, and patching.
Incredible Cost Savings, Security and Performance
By migrating to Azure, Wiley|Wilson has unlocked the scalability and efficiency to digitally transform its business. “We care about uptime, security, reliability, and performance. We can deliver that better and more cost-effectively on Azure today,” Smiley said.
- A scalable and robust Azure cloud infrastructure built to support business goals and drive future growth.
- A 40 percent reduction in IT costs across licensing, hardware, management, and support, saving $286,000 annually.
- A substantial boost in efficiency, with tasks reduced from 45 minutes to under 4 minutes.
Let’s Talk
Smiley had some advice for companies considering a cloud migration: “If you’re still on premises don’t wait but find a good partner. We’ve had several and we keep coming back to JourneyTeam.”
If you’re interested in exploring Azure-based solutions for your organization, JourneyTeam can help. We are an innovative cloud services technology provider with more than 30 years’ experience in Microsoft business applications and technologies.
Our experts are dedicated to accelerating customers’ business growth by delivering superior Azure, Dynamics 365, migration, AI and Copilot, Power Platform, and data and security services.
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