Wiley|Wilson is a full-service architecture and engineering firm, serving government, institutional, and private-sector clients around the world. The company is employee owned by close to 200 professionals. With five sites across the mideast and southeast US, the company has experienced record growth, supported by a strong focus on client satisfaction and a dedicated team that brings a wealth of experience and expertise to every project.
Old Infrastructure, New Challenges
For years, Wiley|Wilson was 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.
“We frequently had system inadequacy and owned hardware failures,” said Ron Smiley, a Wiley|Wilson VP and Chief Technology Officer. At most, 76 of the company’s 200 employees could use the system without requiring a major refresh of the data center, Smiley said. “It was a constant scalability issue.”
The Spoiler Alert
The company’s spoiler alert came during Covid when employees were forced to work from home. If the Internet went down at one of their sites, or if they had any equipment failure in that data center, the entire company lost connectivity.
It was time to move everything to the cloud. “We needed to move file shares, our virtual desktops, and our networking so that it was cloud first, and matched the way that people work today,” Smiley said.
The Last Straw
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,” Smiley said.
Faced with persistent and expensive on-premises issues, Wiley|Wilson looked to Azure for scalability and efficiency, migrating their entire infrastructure to take advantage of the global scale, cost controls, and security and compliance features that Azure provides.
Wiley|Wilson’s requirements also included migrating 130+ users to Azure Virtual Desktop without risking business interruption and ensuring a smooth transition of their business-critical applications.
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.”
It was critical for Wiley|Wilson to invest in their IT team and build capability for the long-term. JourneyTeam ensured the team was properly trained with best practices for reliability, security, performance, cost optimization, and operational excellence. Smiley said JourneyTeam’s support and guidance has been instrumental in their progress.
At some point we had to take the training wheels off and ride the bike ourselves. With JourneyTeam, we had a clear roadmap for how to get there.
Ron Smiley, Wiley|Wilson VP and CTO
Alex Ryan, JourneyTeam’s Azure Practice Director, added: “JourneyTeam is empowering Wiley|Wilson with the work we provide, we don’t create a codependency situation— the objective is for them to own and manage it going forward.”
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.
Cost Efficiency
The transition to Azure Virtual Desktop brought a significant shift from capital expenditure (CAPEX) to operational expenditure (OPEX). With Azure Virtual Desktop, Wiley|Wilson is only paying for the necessary resources, thanks to intelligent resource allocation through Azure’s advanced analytics and monitoring tools.
The company’s cost savings have been incredibly impressive: a 40 percent reduction in IT costs across licensing, hardware, management, and support, saving $286,000 annually.
Inherent Security
Wiley|Wilson can now prioritize security and compliance without the need for complex custom infrastructure. Azure’s inherently secure foundation offers multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, and network segmentation, which effectively protects sensitive architectural designs and client data.
In addition, Wiley|Wilson benefits from behavior-based cybersecurity, a major Microsoft advancement in threat detection and prevention. By focusing on the actions and patterns of users and systems, rather than relying solely on known threat signatures, they have a more dynamic and effective defense against evolving digital threats.
Previously, the company relied on two endpoint scanning software systems, which often led to user-reported issues of scans taking over machines. “That problem is completely gone with Azure,” said Smiley, adding that the new behavior-based system has been a huge improvement.
Enhanced Performance
With Azure’s high-performance computing resources, Wiley|Wilson’s users can access CAD applications from anywhere with exceptional performance. Tasks that previously took a minute to load now take just 15 seconds or less, showcasing a remarkable enhancement in efficiency. Additionally, Azure storage solutions facilitate easier sharing of large CAD/BIM files across different locations, streamlining collaboration and reducing delays.
For instance, the performance of the BIM system when opening a REVIT building information model, has seen a dramatic improvement. “What used to take 45 minutes to open now takes less than 4 minutes,” Smiley said.
Reduced IT Overhead
With Wiley|Wilson’s small IT Team of five, they were previously dedicated to managing hardware and software issues. A significant portion of their time was spent addressing problems in the data center, such as swapping out faulty components and contacting support for repairs.
Smiley said they incurred substantial costs for warranty and support contracts. Anytime the internet went down, the IT team had to rush to the data center, often in the middle of the night, to troubleshoot and resolve the issue.
“With Azure Virtual Desktop, we no longer need to maintain hardware, which has resulted in significant time savings and improved the quality of life for our IT team. They can now manage everything remotely, eliminating the need for physical interventions,” Smiley said.
The shift has not only reduced our operational costs but also allowed our IT team to focus on more strategic tasks, enhancing overall productivity.
Centralized Data Management
The Azure admin portal offers a centralized management interface that has significantly simplified administration and monitoring, both critical as the company continues to grow. “User management has become much easier for our team. We can add users and grant them access to necessary resources quickly, reducing the time required to onboard new employees. With Azure, adding new users is as simple as sliding buttons,” Smiley said.
Next Steps
By migrating their entire data center to Azure, Wiley|Wilson is taking advantage of the scale, resilience, and innovation benefits that come with a modern infrastructure. As the company continues to navigate the shift and expand their business, the cloud infrastructure is flexible enough to accommodate needs with predictable, controlled costs.
Wiley|Wilson is also investing internal resources in the Microsoft Power Platform to extend and customize their Azure environments to better fit their specific requirements. For example, the IT team can automate AVD management tasks with Power Platform, allowing for automated scaling across VMs dynamically.
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.
The time is now. Contact JourneyTeam today.