Client story Insight helps expand Atlas Cloud’s cloud-first strategy with Microsoft WVD and Azure
By Insight UK / 1 Jul 2020 / Topics: Microsoft 365
By Insight UK / 1 Jul 2020 / Topics: Microsoft 365
Atlas Cloud is a UK Managed Service Provider – based in Newcastle – helping companies minimise risk and maximise productivity with leading cloud technology solutions that enable teams to work remotely.
There were three business drivers for Atlas Cloud to get started with Windows Virtual Desktop. The first was a customer request for a small hosted desktop solution with WVD. Then, Atlas Cloud already had a desire to learn more about Azure services in general.
They were facing challenges in delivering Office 365 and MS365 cloud services from their own local data centers. Challenges that don’t exist when deployed in Azure. And third, in line with their cloud-first strategy, Atlas Cloud wanted to decommission some of their own private data centres and shift the focus from buying and managing hardware to taking it as a service from the cloud.
“We engaged Insight because we had a clear scope for this specific customer. In addition, we also wanted the Azure experience. We thought Insight could help us best because of their Microsoft expertise and focus on WVD from the start.”
“We now have the confidence and understanding to expand our cloud-first strategy and deliver WVD and complementary Azure services for existing and new customers.”
Chris Morris, Chief Technology Officer, Atlas Cloud, United Kingdom
After attending Insight’s Jumpstart session on Windows Virtual Desktop with basic technology, engineers of Atlas Cloud configured WVD themselves for this specific customer with Insight remotely providing the right guidance and assistance.
Chris Morris says: “This was our first build on WVD with a clearly defined scope in terms of users, applications and regions from which to deliver. Insight’s remote assistance, including the ability to share screens, worked very well and very quickly for us.
In just a few days we had a viable WVD solution for our customer plus the blueprints to deliver Proof of Concepts for WVD to different customers in the future. But it was not just the isolated knowledge about implementing WVD, which helped us with what we needed, but also the broader knowledge about Azure that Insight helped us with.
This has enabled us to bring billable customers into production on Azure. So apart from the consultancy on WVD, knowledge about Azure was a big part of the success of this project.”
“WVD has given us a competitive advantage as we can now offer our customers a more integrated hosted desktop experience in Azure. But perhaps the even bigger advantage is that with the knowledge we now have about WVD and Azure, we are in a better position to offer additional values to customers by combining complementary Microsoft services into the WVD offering; something that is difficult to achieve from a private data centre.
We can now help our customers move further if they decide to go ahead with mobile device management or mobile application management for example. In addition, all costs are monthly in Azure, which allows us to offer more flexible contracts instead of entering into multi-year contracts. This also means that we can deliver a lower-cost solution with Azure than we can from the private data centre. These are all benefits that we can pass on directly to our customers,” concludes Chris Morris.
Atlas Cloud had a specific customer request for Windows Virtual Desktop and wanted to learn how WVD and Azure contribute to an integrated hosted desktop experience.
Insight gave confidence and understanding about WVD and adding complementary services in Azure, which were difficult to deliver in the private data centre.
With WVD and Azure, Atlas Cloud can now expand their cloud-first strategy and gain an advantage over competitors who still offer services from private data centres.
