Setfords, one of the UK’s largest and most prestigious law firms, offers a wide range of legal services through a unique franchise model that supports more than 550 consultants, 200 assistants, and 150 internal staff nationwide. “We’re proud to be at the forefront of legal innovation, ensuring our solicitors have the tools they need to succeed,” said Jamie Hollins, the firm’s IT Manager. “Our goal for the past 15 years has always been to stay ahead of the curve while managing costs effectively.”
Setfords’ previous virtual desktop environment, built on Citrix, created significant operational challenges. “The Citrix environment was complicated and required specialized skills to maintain. It was cumbersome to deploy, often leading to extended downtime that disrupted our operations,” Hollins explained. Nicky Smillie, Cyber Director at Setfords, added, “One of the rollouts took almost 12 hours. There’s no convenient time to have everyone out of the system, especially when you’re supporting international consultants who work around the clock.”
This situation led to inefficiencies and frustrations within the IT team. “We were locked into multi-year contracts with rising costs, and the deployment process required everyone to be logged out of the system for hours,” Hollins said. This became a significant issue for a law firm with a global reach and a team that required constant access to critical applications.
Achieving operational efficiency and significant cost savings
To overcome these challenges, Setfords evaluated several virtual desktop solutions, ultimately selecting Azure Virtual Desktop and adding Nerdio Manager for Enterprise for its ease of management and comprehensive management toolset. “Nerdio was highly recommended by CNNECT, the company that helped build our Azure environment,” Hollins noted. “It offered a full suite of tools that met our needs, including local client monitoring, which was a game-changer for us.”
Smillie said that two key factors led Setfords to select Nerdio: cost reduction and patching cycles. The firm was seeking a solution that could deliver significant cost savings while also streamlining the virtual desktop management and update processes.
The transition to Nerdio Manager brought immediate benefits. “We cut our Azure costs by 40-50%, saving hundreds of thousands of pounds annually,” he confirmed. This substantial cost reduction was possible due to Nerdio Manager’s dynamic Auto-Scaling and optimization capabilities.
Adding budgeting and operational efficiencies
Nerdio also allowed Setfords to move costs from capital expenses to operational expenses, making it much easier to manage its budget. Instead of paying one or two million euros upfront, the firm now pays based on actual consumption.
Such cost savings are the result of Nerdio’s ability to simplify virtual desktop management. “Before Nerdio,” explained Luke Clements, an IT Support Technician at Setfords, “we had to monitor the system constantly to ensure we didn’t run out of capacity. Now, we can automatically scale resources based on demand, so we don’t have to worry about it. This feature alone has saved us significant time and resources.”
Ease of management extends to updates and deployments. “We no longer have to take people offline for hours to update or deploy,” Clements said. “We can do it with minimal disruption, which has greatly improved our team’s efficiency.”
Preparing for the future with continuous innovation
The Setfords team believes Nerdio’s commitment to innovation and customer support has made a significant impact on operations, helping them be more agile and responsive to future needs. “Nerdio is a constantly evolving product,” Hollins said. “Every month, they introduce new features, including AI-powered tools that provide automation capabilities and deeper data insights. This will help us manage our virtual desktops effectively, no matter how our needs evolve.”
Ready to see how Nerdio can help your organization simplify IT operations and reduce costs? Book a demo today.
