How an Energy giant 'virtually' transformed its workplace

A leading UK-based electricity and gas company implemented Wipro virtuadesk™, a complete desktop virtualization solution, leading to two times improvement in stability and performance of desktops 

Client background

Client: A UK-based energy company

Industry: Energy

Area of operation: UK

Services: Supplies electricity and gas

Number of employees: Over 10,000 

Challenge

The energy company had a legacy environment based on Windows XP virtual desktop solution. This led to stability, performance and scalability issues with less adoption of desktop and application virtualization. The incumbent virtual desktop solution was only for 3,000 users and operations were complicated with over 75 different desktop images. The solution was going out of support from Microsoft and was being decommissioned and migrated to Windows 7. The client wanted to implement a new Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) within a time period of 3 months and also migrate additional 1000 users (a total of 4000 users) in three months and scale up to 7,000 users in a year’s time

Solution

Wipro implemented Wipro virtuadesk™, a complete desktop virtualization solution built on Cisco UCS servers to deliver Windows 7 and Windows 10 virtual desktops.

• Transformed legacy desktops and brought in desktop virtualization using Wipro virtuadesk™ platform
  
• Consolidated over 75 XP images into a single Windows 7 SOE and deployed in the virtual environment
  
• Moved 4,000 users from XP to Windows 7 platform
  
• Virtualized over 200 applications and deployed it on Wipro virtuadesk™ platform 
  
• Managed VDI for the existing 4,000 users and implemented VDI for 7,000+ users
  
• Managed Mailbox for VDI users
  
• Provided data centre hosting and management for VDI
  
• Provided distributed server support, and network and security support 
  
• Built storage boost technologies into the Wipro virtuadesk™ application to improve stability, performance and scalability
  
• Provided per user-per month pricing model to enable increased number of users without additional upfront capital investments 
  
• Streamlined operations with different app stacks attached to a single golden image to reduce complexity 
  
• Delivered end-to-end managed services including an upgrade roadmap to maintain latest VDI technology
  

Business impact 

Implementation of Wipro’s desktop virtualization solution, which is designed for rapid deployment and risk management, eliminated the architecture and design phase, and minimized risk. Deployment and provisioning automation enabled the hyper-converged appliance to be factory-assembled, shipped to the datacentre and implemented within three months. The solution ensured business agility and helped create a digital workforce by securing, provisioning, and sharing applications and data. The VDI solution has an upgrade roadmap to avoid the risk of end-of-life and out-of-support infrastructure. This will help reduce the complexities involved in compatibility testing of various platforms and applications during PC refreshes in the future. 

• Migration of 4000 users to the new infrastructure in less than 3 months
  
• Reduction in the total cost of ownership of the VDI by 25%
  
• Implementation time of 6-8 months reduced to 10 weeks
  
• Provisioning of new VDI to users reduced from 1-2 weeks to 1-2 hours
  
• Two times improvement in stability and performance of desktops, resulting in better productivity and lower number of support calls
  

“The client was facing several issues due to their legacy infrastructure and our solution helped address all these challenges. Through Wipro virtuadesk™ workplace transformation solution, we were able to enhance the stability and performance of desktops, resulting in better productivity and efficiency. We got proactive support from our partners like Cisco to deliver the solution on time and meet all customer requirements.” 

- Seshu Kumar G.V. General Manager, Global Infrastructure Services, Wipro