Investment Services Group provides specialist financial services firms with a wide range of support services with the aim of allowing those firms to focus on delivering their specialist services to clients, while ensuring their business remains autonomous.

Investment Services Group focus on providing superior middle office fund management services, adviser support services, compliance and regulatory oversight and general office support services to allow our partners to focus on their core business.

Investment Services Group currently supports a wide range of businesses managing over $6 billion, including funds management, advisory and investment platforms.

Subsidiaries:

Being in the financial services sector, Investment Service Group need to abide by the strictest security practices possible. This included Azure Remote Desktop Service (RDS) to securely access critical information and data.

However, the increasing demand for scalability, cost-efficiency, and enhanced security has led to a need for more modern solutions.

Challenges of the legacy RDS Environment

1. Lack of Scalability
   • RDS environments are inherently challenging to scale. As user demands grow, especially with remote and hybrid work models, adding more users requires significant hardware upgrades and administrative overhead.
   • Traditional RDS architecture is resource-intensive, requiring constant infrastructure investment as demands increase.

2. High Operational Costs
   • Maintaining RDS environments can become expensive, especially when factoring in hardware upgrades, maintenance, and IT staffing.
   • The lack of built-in tools to optimise resource consumption results in higher resource utilization and inefficiency, leading to higher ongoing costs.

3. Limited Disaster Recovery and Redundancy
   • The current RDS environment required additional investment for disaster recovery, redundancy, and business continuity. Ensuring uptime and availability was complex and costly.

4. Security Vulnerabilities
   • The traditional RDS environment was more vulnerable to cyberattacks due to older security models and lack of advanced monitoring tools.
   • Lack of cloud-based firewall for protection of persistent based attacks.

5. Lack of Access to Modern Applications
   • The traditional RDS environment no longer supported the new modern applications like Microsoft Teams needed for the productivity of Investment Services Group.

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)

Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) offers a compelling alternative that provides the flexibility, scalability, and enhanced security that a modern organization like Investment Services Group requires.

1. Delivering a full Windows experience – With Windows 11 multi session for scalability users can operate securely on the same operating system they know and love.
2. Latest Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise – Optimised to run in multi-user environment. Giving users access to the latest technology to enhance their productivity.
3. Secure Access to Services – Using the latest in secure, modern technology AVD allows users to work securely from anywhere.
4. Reduced Costs – Reduced costs with pooled, multi session capability. Coupled with automatic increased or decreased capacity based on time of day, day of week and demand change scaling.

1. Enhanced Scalability
   • Elastic Infrastructure: AVD’s cloud-based infrastructure provides automatic scalability to meet the varying needs of Investment Services Group. Resources are dynamically adjusted to accommodate different workloads, ensuring efficient use of resources.
   • Multi-Session Capability: Unlike RDS, AVD allows multiple users to access the same session, maximizing resource utilisation without requiring constant infrastructure upgrades.
2. Cost Optimisation
   • Automatic updating and patching with AVD automatically applying approved patches further mitigating potential security vulnerabilities.
   • Reduced Hardware Investment: By leveraging Azure’s cloud infrastructure, Investment Services Group reduced infrastructure costs, freeing up capital for other strategic initiatives.
3. Improved management and monitoring
   • The current RDS environment required additional investment for disaster recovery, redundancy, and business continuity. Ensuring uptime and availability was complex and costly.
   • Intellium Technology tools with Azure provide comprehensive monitoring and diagnostics tools, allowing performance tracking, identifying bottlenecks, and optimising the user experience.
4. Improved Security
   • The new AVD solution includes a new Cloud Firewall further securing the environment.
   • Integrated security tools with Microsoft Security services and identity management (via Azure Active Directory).
   • Zero trust model design, allowing for granular access control and ensuring that users can only access the data and applications they are authorised to use.
5. Seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and Teams
   • AVD offers deep integration with Microsoft 365, making it easier for users to collaborate using cloud-based tools like Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive.
   • This integration improves productivity and enhances remote working capabilities, which is especially important for modern, geographically dispersed workforces.
6. Improved Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
   • AVD leverages Azure’s global infrastructure to provide built-in redundancy, ensuring high availability and disaster recovery without the need for significant additional investments.

1. Planning for User Workload – Assessing the specific needs of each user to determine the right configuration for AVD. This ensured performance expectations were met.
2. Licensing and Cost Management – Understanding the licensing model of Microsoft 365 and AVD eligibility for multi-session licensing which significantly reduced costs.
3. Security and Compliance – Using Microsoft compliance certifications and Secure by design methodology. Investment Services Group has enhanced security and compliance.
4. User training and Change Management – Intellium’s key consideration was the user impact. By individually assisting with each user migration and supporting each user on the new capabilities of AVD, Intellium minimised the change disruption.

The new infrastructure design not only increased security and productivity for Investment Services Group, but also resulted in a significant decrease in their monthly Azure Spend. Even with the introduction of a new Cloud Firewall, Investment Services Group realised a net monthly savings of NZ$3988.00.

Transitioning from Remote Desktop Services (RDS) to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) has been a powerful and strategic change for Investment Services Group. With AVD, the firm has a virtual desktop solution that overcomes the many subtle and not-so-subtle drawbacks of RDS. These were mainly issues tied to scalability, cost, and security, all of which are foundational to providing a quality client experience. The move also puts ISG on a pathway to an even more virtualized and agile desktop IT environment—one that is ultimately more efficient and suited to the growing needs of the organization. When Investment Services Group moved to the cloud, it not only fixed the problems tied to its legacy environment but also gave its workforce a more flexible and secure platform. Future-proof as the next-gen Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) is, the migration also supported the company’s long-term digital transformation goals. “We see this as part of a long play,” says Chief Financial Officer Niall Hartigan. “We’re not just doing this to solve a problem. We’re doing it to enable and empower our workforce.

By migrating to Azure Virtual Desktop, Investment Services Group not only resolved the issues associated with their legacy RDS environment but also empowered their workforce with a more flexible, scalable, and secure IT platform. This migration supported the company’s long-term digital transformation goals, positioning them to adapt swiftly to future changes in the business landscape while keeping operational costs under control. The successful transition to AVD has future-proofed their IT infrastructure and enhanced their ability to innovate, collaborate, and grow in a rapidly evolving market.