Success Stories
A modern remote desktop environment designed to improve user experience, support flexible working and give Atrium a more cost-effective route to secure access.
80%
of staff had moved to the new desktop when the original success story was published
Better UX
a higher-performance remote working experience for Atrium’s people
Cost
flexible technology and pricing aligned with Atrium’s cloud strategy
Support
continued optimisation alongside Atrium’s in-house IT team
Atrium is a long-established specialist insurance and reinsurance business that underwrites through Syndicate 609 at Lloyd’s. The organisation has operated since the 1930s and has built its reputation on underwriting and claims expertise, long-term performance and a strong managing-agency model. At the time of the project, Syndicate 609 held an A rating from A.M. Best, A+ from S&P and AA- from Fitch. Its 2020 capacity was £525 million, with Lloyd’s names providing 75% of the underwriting capacity.
Atrium’s people depend on reliable access to corporate data and software to carry out their day-to-day work. That requirement became even more important as employees increasingly needed to work away from the office. Atrium’s existing remote-access environment was expensive and was not delivering the user experience the business wanted. The IT team therefore needed to identify a modern alternative that could improve performance, support remote working and fit the organisation’s wider move towards cloud services.
Atrium already used Office 365 and other cloud services, making a cloud-aligned desktop platform a natural fit. The business selected Microsoft Azure’s Windows Virtual Desktop, now known as Azure Virtual Desktop, because it could provide remote access to Windows desktops and applications while offering flexible technology and pricing options.
Atrium appointed Virtual Engine to work alongside its in-house IT team. Virtual Engine brought specialist End User Computing and cloud expertise to the planning and deployment, including the detailed work needed to make Atrium’s software applications perform effectively in the new environment. Deployment began in November 2020, with the platform configured around Atrium’s performance, user-experience and cost requirements.
The new desktop environment gave Atrium a more flexible way to provide staff with access to the applications and data they needed away from the office. At the time of the original case study, the desktop had been successfully deployed to 80% of staff, with full rollout expected by the end of March.
Atrium reported that it could select the right level of performance to deliver a good user experience at a reasonable cost. Virtual Engine remained involved after deployment, providing ongoing support to help the environment continue to perform well while complementing the skills of Atrium’s internal IT team.
“With WVD we were able to choose the right level of performance to provide staff with a very good user experience and at the same time at a reasonable cost. The new Desktop is successfully deployed to 80% of staff, and we expect to complete the roll out by the end of March.
Virtual Engine was instrumental in making the project a success due to their extensive knowledge of WVD and ability to make software applications perform well in the new environment.”
“We are all delighted with the success of Microsoft WVD at Atrium. We worked closely with the IT Team and are providing ongoing support services to ensure the environment continues to perform well complementing the in-house skills at Atrium.”
Virtual Engine supports environments using Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Entra ID, Conditional Access, Microsoft Defender, Windows Autopilot and related endpoint management tools.
ABOUT VIRTUAL ENGINE
Virtual Engine helps internal IT teams bring complex endpoint environments under control and keep them that way. Rather than replacing your team or asking you to hand over the whole IT estate, its specialists add focused capability across rollout, management, security, visibility and performance.
From rollout and day-to-day management to security, visibility and optimisation, Virtual Engine helps organisations create a more controlled, consistent and dependable endpoint environment.
Get devices built, provisioned, migrated and deployed properly from the start.
Keep your endpoint environment stable, standardised and running smoothly.
Reduce endpoint risk with stronger policy, access control, patching and BYOD governance.
See what is happening across your estate with reporting, dashboards and health monitoring.
Improve endpoint speed, reliability, application performance and digital employee experience.
Speak to Virtual Engine about your current endpoint challenges and where control, visibility or performance could be improved.