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Flexible Working at Hiscox Gareth Wharton – Head of Architecture and Innovation July 2012 [email protected] @theboyg V2, 9/7/2012 Who are Hiscox.. ? Bermuda (HQ) UK • • Birmingham • Colchester Europe • Glasgow • Amsterdam • Leeds • Bordeaux • London • Brussels • Maidenhead • Cologne • Manchester • Dublin • Hamburg USA • Lisbon • Armonk • Lyon • Atlanta • Madrid • Chicago • Munich • Los Angeles • Paris • Manhattan Guernsey • Miami • • San Francisco Hamilton St Peter Port 2 Who are Hiscox? 3 IT Background • Whole company served from our 2 co-lo data centres (Telecity in London and Paris) • We are predominantly an HP house, based on blade infrastructure and 3 PAR replicated storage • Heavy users of a range of Citrix products • All offices apart from London were already on XenApp 5 using Wyse terminals 4 Why flexible working • We wanted true work anywhere – Any other Hiscox office – home – Mobile • Single platform to support • Increased data security • Reduced support costs (our analysis showed Citrix users log on average half as many calls, and they are fixed twice as quickly 4hrs vs. 8hrs) • We had most of the components available 5 What did we decide to do ? • Primary goal was to move away from desktops on to Citrix • We decided to go with XenDesktop rather than XenApp • Mostly to meet new requirements such as streaming media / Instant Messenger / VoIP / Desktop VC • Decided to stay with XP, but we upgraded from Office 2003 to 2007. Upgrade also included IE, McAfee antivirus and Acrobat etc. • In addition (but outside of this programme, we standardised on Cisco VoIP phones across the group, to assist with flexible working) 6 How did we do it? • We were already using XenApp on XenServer • Wider use of Provisioning server • Created 2 versions of XenDesktop, streamed and dedicated • Aimed at 85% streamed / 10% Dedicated / 5% Remain on Desktop split • Hardware refresh to new HP G7 BL465 with 24cores and 128Gb of RAM • Installed Citrix Password Manager 7 How did we do? • 500 users moved (last tranche just about to transition) • Around 100 users on dedicated (IT developers / marketing / corporate communications) • Whole company served out of 2 blade enclosures per site (half a rack) • Some desktops still remain (<40) • Reduced password reset calls to the helpdesk from 40 on first working day of 2011 to 4 on first working day 2012 8 What are the benefits? • Users can genuinely roam to any desk in the company where there's a Wyse terminal • One platform to manage (removed the vast majority of desktops) • Increased security (no data stored locally) • Very simple remote access (secure and identical to working in the office) • Over 30% reduction in power usage (17,000 kWh/month, £20k pa and a corresponding reduction in CO2 1.5 tons/month) • Extended hardware lifecycle (standard PC = 3 years, Wyse Terminal = 5/7 years) • Over 100 PC's donated to charities, remainder securely recycled 9 What were the challenges? • Migrating 500 different images to one standard one • Wyse terminal performance (dual 24" monitors) • AppSense has had some instability, probably our main pain point during UAT • Performance for very heavy users (actuarial and catastrophe modelling) • Microsoft Licensing (device vs. User based licensing) • Every problem is a Citrix one • Need a chaos Monkey © Brian Madden 10 What Next ? • Just moved IT department to Hot desking • Introduce Citrix on iPad • Investigate migrating existing XenApp users depending on enhancements on XenApp 6.5 / Windows 2008 • Pilot of XenApp 6.5, XenDesktop 5.6 / Windows7 / Office2010 and beyond • Try to get the remaining desktops decommissioned • Solve the laptop challenge (tablets?) • Network Access Control • ShareFile • BYOD pilot in 2013 ? 11 Questions... 12