Replacement of Citrix environment with Azure Virtual Desktop
Full migration of 8,000 Citrix users to a highly automated AVD target architecture.
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- Company size
- Enterprise
- Region
- Nordics & Germany
- Industry
- Energy supply
- Project duration
- 2 years
by switching to Azure Native Services
migrated during live operations — without an hour of downtime
The challenge
Our client operated an established Citrix on-premises environment for over 8,000 users. The solution worked, but high licensing and maintenance costs as well as the effort required for in-house operations tied up resources that could have been used more valuably elsewhere. The goal: A modern, cloud-native VDI solution that enables flexible working, reduces operational responsibility, and simultaneously improves the cost structure - without compromising on security and user experience. As an energy supplier, elevated security requirements applied: the move to the cloud must not enlarge the attack surface — security was a project requirement from the start, not a side condition.
Inside the rollout
We designed and implemented a highly available Azure Virtual Desktop environment for 8,000 users, fully automated with custom-developed code. Instead of using third-party tools, we built a tailor-made automation platform with Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD pipelines. Deployment, scaling, and lifecycle management of the session hosts run fully automatically and on demand. Security accompanied the project from day one: a security architect was a permanent member of the project team, and security requirements entered the target architecture as design criteria instead of being reviewed after the fact. FSLogix ensures fast logins and seamless profiles, no matter which host the user logs onto. The integration with Entra ID and Conditional Access enables context-based access control: access only from compliant devices, with MFA, and under the right conditions. Before the cutover, we had the entire environment examined by an external penetration test. Findings were remediated by priority and retested — only after a passed retest did the platform go into production. The result: 35% lower TCO, no in-house operation of the VDI infrastructure anymore, and a solution that is fully versioned in code, reproducible, auditable, externally pen-tested, and without vendor lock-in.
„VDI in the cloud only pays off when in-house operations disappear — not when the servers merely move.“
Results at a glance
- TCO reduction
- 35 %
- by switching to Azure Native Services
- Migrated users
- 8,000 users
- migrated during live operations — without an hour of downtime
Zero Downtime: Seamless transition for all 8,000 employees without business interruption. 35% Cost Savings: Massive reduction in licensing and operating costs by switching to Azure Native Services.
Learnings
- Infrastructure as Code instead of third-party tools: a tailor-made automation platform makes deployment, scaling, and lifecycle management reproducible — without vendor lock-in.
- Zero downtime for 8,000 users is no accident, but the result of fully automated deployments and demand-based scaling.
- FSLogix decouples profiles from the session host — fast logins, no matter where the user signs in.
- Context-based access control via Entra ID and Conditional Access belongs in the target architecture from the start, not bolted on afterwards.
- An external penetration test before the cutover costs days but saves weeks: findings can be fixed while changes are still cheap — not during live operations.
What's next
The AVD environment now runs fully automated: session hosts scale on demand, and changes flow into production versioned via CI/CD pipelines. Since the entire architecture lives in code, new requirements — additional host pools, changed images, new compliance rules — can be implemented without manual operational effort. The resources previously tied up by in-house Citrix operations are now available for the continued development of the cloud platform.
Service: Implementation & Migration
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