Starting point.

Slim, flexible, and cost-transparent—these are the qualities of IT the Aarhus Foundation has using for a long time. Instead of operating their own data environment with servers, storage, etc, the organisation has been using the cloud for some years now to support them in running their residential and occupation groups for people with physical and learning disabilities. This means that their IT is managed and maintained in a central data centre. A desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) model with monthly billing is used to provision the required applications as needed and accessed by employees at their workstations.
 

“Our employees come from professions that do not possess many IT skills. This means we need a solution that just works so we do not have to think about our IT. We have therefore opted for lean IT with the help of the cloud. But all this is useless if it’s not the right service,” says Christine Blessing, Management Assistant and IT Coordinator at the Aarhus Foundation, of the past situation. In the past, it was a common occurrence that services couldn’t be accessed when they were needed and the systems and applications didn’t provide the service they promised.

 

Those in charge of the Foundation decided they needed to look for a new solution. They found it, in a dynamic duo – IT service provider Bechtle and Microsoft.

Project objectives.

“The Foundation was not tied to any specific technology provider, but the combination of our cloud and data centres was a perfect match for Aarhus’ needs. Thanks to our comprehensive service package, we were able to offer a tailored solution,” summarises Roland Jung, Senior IT Sales Cloud Specialist from Mägenwil.

 

We wanted a reliable cloud platform and professional services – and we got both.

Christine Blessing, Management Assistant and Coordinator for the Aarhus Foundation

Process.

After some design and planning steps to optimise the cloud strategy and install the services required, Bechtle’s experts migrated the Foundation’s IT to their data centre in Zurich in December 2015. Since then, the system has been running on Windows 2012 servers. Some 300 Foundation employees access centrally-hosted applications like Microsoft Office 2013 via thin clients and the cloud.

Solution.

360° desktop

 

Key benefits:

  • Focus on core business
  • Maximum reliability and availability
  • Seamless scalability (handles growth and structural billing change)
  • Quick integration of other locations, users, and devices
  • Customer portal to easily log and manage user data, access rights, and applications

 

Costs: 

  • Maximum cost transparency and accuracy
  • No investment cycles
  • TCO per user
  • No more investments in hardware and software
  • No additional costs for operation and maintenance

 

Security and availability: 

  • Protected access to applications and data through encrypted connection
  • Multi-factor authentication for connecting via mobile devices or external locations
  • Uninterrupted operation and 24/7 infrastructure monitoring
  • Backup solution plus simple data recovery (replication)
  • Disaster recovery
  • Data stays in Switzerland

 

Support:

  • Clearly defined Service Level Agreements
  • On-site support for client infrastructure

Business benefits. 

An IT switch  with tangible added-value. “We wanted a reliable cloud platform and professional services – and we got both,” Blessing says in praise of their provider and the technology switch. Thanks to the special licensing model, the Aarhus Foundation also has the flexibility to add further services as required.

 

The financial aspect is also pleasing. The new desktop cloud services and hosting from Bechtle means that annual costs have been optimised. “The cost-use ratio of the new IT is an across the board success,” Blessing concludes.