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- Legacy Citrix on VMware was costly, complex, and no longer aligned with Findex’s cloud strategy.
- Supporting a growing international contractor workforce required secure desktop access without shipping corporate devices.
- IT needed a centralized way to manage Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 while maintaining strict role-based security and minimizing administrative overhead.
Solution
Standardized on Azure Virtual Desktop for shared desktops and Windows 365 Cloud PCs for dedicated contractor and specialist workloads, all managed through Nerdio Manager for Enterprise.
Automated scaling, image management, updates, and desktop provisioning while reducing cloud costs.
Implemented granular role-based administration and secure desktop provisioning to support financial services security requirements.
Modernizing desktop delivery for a changing workforce
Findex supports more than 2,500 employees across Australia and New Zealand while increasingly relying on an international contractor workforce to meet the business’ growing demands. As one of Australasia’s leading financial services firms, the organization requires secure, reliable access to business applications while maintaining strict security controls.
Its legacy Citrix environment, running on VMware (now Omnissa), had become increasingly difficult to justify.
“We were looking to move away from that by moving our infrastructure into the cloud,” explained Jimmy Fulcher, Solution Specialist at Findex. “Price was certainly the primary driver, but we also wanted something more streamlined that didn’t require as much management overhead.”
Azure Virtual Desktop aligned with the company’s cloud strategy, while Nerdio Manager provided the management layer needed to simplify operations.
“Azure and AVD were more economical,” shared Fulcher. “We didn’t need a lot of the features that Citrix provided, and we found that AVD with Nerdio had everything we actually required at no additional cost.”
A unified desktop strategy with Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365
Today, Findex uses Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud PCs together to support different workforce needs from a single management platform.
Azure Virtual Desktop provides flexible shared desktops for employees and serves as a resilient fallback environment whenever endpoint issues occur. Meanwhile, Windows 365 Cloud PCs have become the preferred option for international contractors, providing each user with a dedicated desktop that closely mirrors the experience of a company-issued device.
“We increasingly use Windows 365 desktops,” Fulcher said. “It gives them the same experience they would have on a company-issued device without the security or logistical concerns of shipping one to a foreign country.”
The consistency also simplifies onboarding. Internal employees training contractors can work within nearly identical desktop environments, reducing confusion while allowing contractors to begin working quickly.
Enabling secure global contractor onboarding
As Findex expanded its international contractor program, IT needed a faster way to provide secure access without shipping hardware around the world.
Windows 365 Cloud PCs solved both logistical and security challenges.
IT can rapidly provision desktops tailored to specific contractor roles while maintaining strict access controls and ensuring sensitive client information remains protected.
“We’ve had situations where we’ve only had a few days to get people up and running,” Fulcher said. “We can create a secure desktop very specific to their role quite readily.”
Simplified operations and business continuity through centralized management
Managing both desktop platforms through Nerdio Manager gives IT a single place to automate routine administration while reducing manual effort. Auto-Scaling automatically expands shared Azure Virtual Desktop capacity during spikes in demand before reducing resources once usage subsides, helping balance performance and cloud costs. When endpoint issues affect employee devices, that same flexibility means users can quickly move into Azure Virtual Desktop while capacity expands automatically, minimizing downtime and keeping employees productive during unexpected disruptions.
Nerdio also automates routine operational tasks, including Windows updates, host creation, scripting, and image management. “We could script all of that ourselves,” Fulcher explained. “But obviously it takes a lot of time and effort.”
The operational impact has been significant. Fulcher estimates his team is approximately 30–35% more efficient managing shared AVD environments, freeing time for strategic initiatives instead of routine desktop administration. “If we had to do it all manually, that would probably be a full-time role,” he said. 3
Strengthening security with least-privilege administration
As a financial services organization, security influences every technology decision Findex makes.
Rather than giving administrators broad permissions, Nerdio Manager allows the organization to assign only the level of access each employee requires.
Level 1 support staff can monitor and shadow user sessions without making infrastructure changes. More experienced administrators receive additional privileges, while senior engineers retain full administrative control.
“We can give people the required access, but no more than that,” Fulcher said. “We’re big on only the necessary access required.”
This least-privilege approach helps Findex strengthen operational security while supporting its broader governance and compliance requirements.
A partnership built around customer feedback
Beyond the platform itself, Fulcher credits Nerdio’s responsiveness as an important part of the relationship.
He points to local customer representatives in Australia and New Zealand, regional customer events, and opportunities to preview upcoming roadmap features as examples of a vendor that actively listens to customer feedback.
“Australia and New Zealand are not the biggest market in the world, so we often don’t get that sort of attention,” Fulcher said. “That local focus was really good to see.”
For Findex, Nerdio has become a critical platform that continues to evolve alongside the organization’s needs while providing the scalability, security, and operational efficiency required to support a modern financial services workforce.
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See how Findex securely supported a global workforce with Nerdio.
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