BITSUMMIT replaced Edmonton International Airport's legacy one-to-one VDI with a scalable, secure Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment for offshore teams.
Edmonton Regional Airports Authority’s (EIA) IT environment was becoming increasingly difficult to manage due to its reliance on outdated one-to-one physical desktop systems for offshore staff accessing critical internal applications. This setup lacked scalability and flexibility, hindering the organization’s ability to efficiently support its offshore operations. Additionally, the absence of detailed documentation on the current environment made it difficult to plan and execute an effective upgrade without extensive discovery and planning.
EIA required a modern, scalable solution that could provide offshore users with secure, efficient access to internal applications, improve desktop management capabilities, and reduce operational costs.
BITSUMMIT replaced EIA's one-to-one physical desktops with a centrally managed Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops environment, so offshore staff could reach internal applications securely from any device. With no usable documentation of the existing setup, the work started with discovery and ended with a tested, handed-over platform.
Discover, then design for scale
BITSUMMIT ran requirements workshops with EIA stakeholders to set the goals and success criteria, then reviewed the existing data center and IT architecture to find the scalability and security gaps. From that, the team designed a scalable architecture built on two Citrix Delivery Controllers for resilience, the Citrix Workspace app for access, and Citrix User Profile Management for a consistent experience, with a delivery strategy for the applications that mattered, including Adobe Reader, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, and Microsoft Office 365.
Build and integrate securely
The Citrix infrastructure, the Delivery Controllers, StoreFront servers, and the License Server, was installed and integrated into Active Directory through dedicated OUs and GPOs. User Profile Management and folder redirection gave offshore staff a consistent, personal desktop across sessions, and the key applications, including Microsoft Teams, Dynamics AX, and Office 365, were packaged and published. Citrix's remote-access architecture secured the whole environment, keeping internal applications and data protected even when reached from offshore devices.
Validate and hand over
A pilot phase put the environment in front of real users to confirm functionality and performance before wider rollout, and knowledge-transfer sessions left EIA's IT team able to run and extend the platform themselves.
EIA's offshore teams now reach their internal applications through a secure Citrix Workspace, with faster load times and a far more responsive experience than the old physical desktops gave them.
Centralizing desktops and applications cut desktop support costs by 30% and simplified day-to-day IT operations, while Citrix Machine Creation Services lets EIA provision new desktops quickly and with little manual effort. The environment scales to more users as the business needs it, and Citrix's secure remote-access architecture keeps sensitive applications and data protected no matter where they are accessed from.
Tell us what you're trying to modernize, secure or migrate. We'll bring a plan and a named senior engineer.
Schedule a call →
Follow our social media channels; we are a supportive community sharing meaningful content.
.webp)
