Living Choice
No more downtime, no more Citrix: Living Choice Modernizes with Nerdio
About Living Choice Australia
Living Choice Australia is a premier provider of retirement communities, offering end-to-end services from land development and construction to resident care and facility management. Serving retirees aged 55 and older, the organization operates across multiple states including New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia, with multiple new projects in development.
Technology plays a key role in supporting internal operations and providing services to residents. With a small internal IT team managing both infrastructure and strategy, simplicity, efficiency, and cost control are critical priorities.
Letting go of legacy: Moving beyond Citrix and complexity
Before Nerdio, Living Choice relied on Citrix to deliver virtual desktops to internal staff. While Citrix offered autoscaling and server control, it came with considerable tradeoffs: high costs, yearly licensing contracts, and a reliance on external consultants for even minor changes.
When Systems Architect Andrew Way attended a local JuiceIT event hosted by Data#3, he encountered Nerdio for the first time. The appeal was immediate: Nerdio offered the same autoscaling and management capabilities—without the added complexity or cost of Citrix. Even better, Nerdio worked seamlessly with the Microsoft technologies Living Choice already trusted.
With a looming ERP migration and unpredictable project delays, the flexibility of month-to-month Nerdio licensing also offered a key advantage. If they needed more time to complete their internal digital transformation, they could continue using Nerdio without being locked into another 12-month commitment.
The Nerdio difference: Smarter, faster, more affordable IT
After deploying Nerdio Manager for Enterprise, Living Choice experienced noticeable performance and user experience gains. For example, a major frustration with Citrix—users receiving an error the first time they opened an application—was eliminated. Nerdio’s integration with native Microsoft technologies ensured that configurations were applied before the user saw the login screen.
Nerdio’s autoscaling features helped optimize performance and cost across the board. Andrew could now monitor server behavior through intuitive dashboards, make adjustments in real-time, and ensure that resources matched user demand—without overprovisioning or manually scaling infrastructure.
Because Nerdio relies on Microsoft-native tools, the IT team could also lean on existing partners and expertise rather than relying on specialized, high-cost Citrix consultants. This significantly improved internal support workflows and empowered frontline techs to resolve issues independently.
Empowering IT to focus on strategic impact
With Nerdio managing the day-to-day backend, Andrew’s role shifted from break-fix tasks to high-value strategic work—like writing governance plans, optimizing digital processes, and supporting business innovation.
Today, Living Choice is fully off Citrix and enjoying the performance, cost efficiency, and simplicity Nerdio brings to their AVD environment. Even as the company prepares to shift away from virtual desktops entirely, Nerdio remains a flexible and indispensable tool—one that’s easy to scale down when needed and powerful enough to manage their environment until then.