Our client, MIRAIT Technologies, wanted to make the shift to an Azure-based cloud environment, to ensure a consistent experience for their 160 staff and extensive network of contractors located across Australia.
MIRAIT Technologies Australia is a national telecommunications and ICT infrastructure construction and maintenance provider, operating from five locations across the eastern seaboard. With more than 160 staff and an extensive network of contractors the company found itself with the need to update its I.T. infrastructure.
MIRAIT had on-premise infrastructure centrally located in its head office which was presenting several challenges. The infrastructure was aging and would need investment in both hardware and software to maintain key business applications.
At the same time it was difficult to ensure staff in other locations had a consistent experience since outside of NSW not all infrastructure was available to all locations and link speed and congestion had a negative impact on operations. The centrally-located infrastructure also represented a business risk, both from a security and redundancy viewpoint.
Craig McLaren, Operations Manager for OneCloud IT, says MIRAIT desired a consistent experience for staff no matter where they were located, and wished to have only a single system to support and provide training on. The nature of MIRAIT’s work meant the ability to mobilise their workforce while ensuring they could have the same experience whether they were in the office or working remotely, made a cloud solution the logical choice.
Defining The Solution
McLaren says MIRAIT’s desire to make the shift to an Azure-based cloud environment was complicated by the need to run custom line of business (LOB) applications which were dependent on the on-premises infrastructure.
The solution chosen was a Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) based in Azure to provide a full desktop experience to staff no matter where they were located. The WVD solution meant users would have a full Windows 10 experience for a seamless transition from their existing desktops, including compatibility with existing software.
OneCloud had to ensure the solution scaled, both in terms of users and performance, and ensuring the various custom apps and security requirements functioned on a Windows 10 Terminal Server.
Shifting data from traditional client-server apps into the cloud also gives businesses a pathway to migrate to a fully SaaS application in the future when the time is right.
The WVD solution gives MIRAIT greater flexibility to scale as the need arises. With an extensive network of contractors working on projects the ability to add and remove users to the systems quickly and deploy WVD to them wherever they are brings enhanced flexibility to business operations.
Testing & Deployment
To test that the system would perform as required and fulfil the functions MIRAIT needed, a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) environment was set up and key users across various departments were used to test and refine the solution.
Once the client signed off on the project OneCloud set up and deployed the production system in just three weeks.
This was achieved without any downtime required from MIRAIT providing an almost seamless transition between the old system and the new Azure-based WVD solution.
Andrew Lutterbeck, Executive General Manager Strategy & Business at MIRAIT was very pleased with the process, stating “We didn’t have a single issue on the first day of launch, from a user base of more than 150 users. It was a very successful implementation,”.