Sector
Charity
Users
50+
Solutions
Windows Virtual Desktop
With its legacy remote desktop system about to be retired, Conor Butcher, Bipolar UK’s Data Officer, needed a new virtual working environment for his team. Working closely with Chess, Bipolar UK opted for a Windows Virtual Desktop environment running Microsoft 365, accessed Windows laptops and hosted on the Windows Azure platform.
The Challenge
Though it is based in London, the charity’s team of 14 staff had to operate remotely during the 2020 COVID pandemic, supporting over 85 peer support groups across the UK and an eCommunity of over 5000 active users.
The charity’s legacy remote desktop system was a proprietary platform that was approaching the end of its operational life, becoming slow and increasingly unreliable. Recognising that his team needed an intuitive virtual desktop environment, Conor called in Chess to discuss the possible alternatives.
The Solution
A WVD solution was deployed quickly, providing Bipolar UK network users with the combined benefits of Windows 10 and Microsoft 365.
All files and folders were made available using different user permissions to authorised users as required and no data was lost in the process. All files on user machines now sync with One Drive.
The migration was delivered safely and securely, and for added security and compliance, Chess supplied a two-factor authentication solution on top of the built-in security features of Microsoft 365.
As a subscription-based solution, the Windows Virtual Desktop solution also now offered a favourable ‘pay as you go’ pricing model for the charity.
The Result
The new Windows Virtual Desktop means that Bipolar UK’s team now have access to a ready-made virtual machine running Windows, no matter where they may be working.
It means they can work anywhere, at any time in an intuitive way, meaning very little support or management overhead for Conor.
From a cost perspective, Bipolar UK doesn’t need to worry about any additional charges.
WVD is managed via the Microsoft Azure Portal, which means it is scalable and future proof. And finally, with the inherent security of Microsoft 365 and the 2FA system, Bipolar UK is running a very secure system to protect its data and users.
"Our new Windows Virtual Desktop makes IT so much easier for our staff. We simply log on to our system and everything is there for us – it just works as it should."
- Conor Butcher, Data Officer, Bipolar UK