Background
Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council serves a population of 130,000 with a lean staff of 600. For this small public sector organisation, every pound saved is a pound that can be reinvested to improve services for its residents. When the council’s IT team members faced mounting challenges in managing its Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) environment, they knew they needed an innovative solution that could help them cut costs while maintaining operational efficiency.
Challenge
“When I first joined, I was presented with the AVD infrastructure and told, ‘This is the way we update the images; here’s the document to follow.’ I looked at it and thought, ‘Oh my goodness, we are going to lose so much time doing image updates, I can already feel the pain,’” explained Richard Billings, infrastructure support officer at Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council.
The council’s IT team was updating images weekly – sometimes even more frequently – to keep up with patches and application updates for its 600 users. The manual process was not only time-consuming but also fraught with potential for error. “Having to go through that document and trying not to miss a beat, or it could all go wrong, was quite an arduous process,” said Billings.
Solution
The council discovered Nerdio Manager for Enterprise through a recommendation from one of its third-party support providers. After a trial period that demonstrated significant cost savings, it implemented the solution.
“We’re saving so much time now that we don’t even think about it as a task,” said Billings.
What used to take half a day of meticulous work now happens mostly automatically. Nerdio Manager’s built-in scripts for common applications, such as Microsoft Teams and Office, allowed the team to significantly reduce the time spent on manual updates and deployment.
But the benefits extended beyond time savings. Nerdio Manager’s intelligent automation capabilities “revolutionised” how the council managed its AVD environment. The system’s dynamic server management automatically turned off idle servers, fine-tuned disk usage, and adjusted scaling based on real-time needs.
Nerdio’s approach to storage scaling also impressed the team. The solution recently introduced a feature to automatically scale Azure storage based on usage, addressing the common challenge of growing FSLogix profiles.
Moreover, Nerdio enhanced the team’s ability to troubleshoot issues. When faced with challenges like the recent “black screen” bug, Nerdio Manager allowed the team to quickly remedy problems, put servers into maintenance mode, and spin up new servers on the fly to support users trying to stay productive. This level of agility and responsiveness has been crucial in maintaining high-quality service for the council’s users.
Results
For a public sector organisation such as Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council, demonstrating fiscal responsibility is paramount. The council estimates savings of more than a couple of thousand pounds per month across its servers providing virtual desktop infrastructure. But the impact goes beyond just the bottom line. By freeing up IT resources, Nerdio has allowed the council to focus on more strategic initiatives.
“It’s not just about cost cutting,” said Billings. “It’s about smart, efficient operations that allow us to reinvest in our growth and public services.”
