Futurestate IT Customer Success Story “AppRx provides a powerful yet simple solution for managing application risks and minimizing costs, while also enabling us to free up our resources for new, value-add projects.” Ivano Stellato, Director of Technology Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
AT A GLANCE
Implementation Highlights
Company Name Cassels Brock Lawyers Toronto, Canada www.casselsbrock.com
Industry Law firm
Key Challenges
Assess the risks involved when applications fall out of date Keep on top of patches and upgrades as new versions of applications and operating systems become available Finding an automated solution that allows them to test compatibility and trust the results
Key Benefits
Solution and Services Saas-based AppRx
Existing Environment Windows 7 Windows Server 2008 Citrix
Had done the Windows 7 migration and virtualization manually Realized the AppRx solution would have saved their rationalization and migration efforts drastically Now using AppRx to continuously keep all their applications current
Ongoing assessment of the state of applications keep them current Automated process means reduced cost to manage applications Up-to-date application details reduce the risk of application failure Increased performance as the applications are always running on up-to-date operating system With reports outlining exactly what to upgrade, the upgrade process is streamlined and more manageable
Futurestate IT AppRx application compatibility and currency solution rapidly assesses, monitors, and migrates applications to help clients reduce cost, minimize risk, and streamline application portfolio management.
HIGH COMPANY STANDARDS Established since 1888, Cassels Brock is a longstanding Canadian law firm with an illustrious history. Currently, it has more than 200 lawyers serving the transaction, advocacy, and advisory needs of Canadian and international major business sectors. The firm has a nimble platform that allows its lawyers to work with organizations of all sizes and types, and to work on projects domestically as well as internationally. The firm capitalizes on the breadth of its resources, and pulls in specific expertise from various practice areas to ensure that the client’s needs are met, with maximum efficiency and skill. They can handle files ranging from tax advice for small business owners to cross-border mergers for large multi-national conglomerates. Cassels Brock has been ranked amongst the top Canadian firms by Bloomberg and Thomson Financial for its work in the mergers and acquisition activities.
WINDOWS 7 MIGRATION
APPLICATION PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
When Ivano Stellato, Director of Technology at Cassels Brock, came on the scene, the company was just starting its $3 million IT refresh project. The project involved a 550-desktop hardware refresh, a 65-applications upgrade, and was carried out by 6 full time internal staff plus a team of external consultants.
“If you read many of the whitepapers out there, you get the message that when you proactively manage your application portfolio on an ongoing basis, the cost to maintain your application portfolio is a lot less than if you do a major migration every few years,” added Stellato.
“Cassels Brock did application audits every 2-3 As part of the Windows 7 migration, Stellato’s team years, because it simply costs too much to perform manually performed testing against Windows 7 for the audit every year,” explained Stellato. “I believe each application. For those IT should model itself around the that failed the test, his team business. Therefore, I wanted to “Our goal is to have a nimble would conduct investigation get to the modern design, where technology platform for our lawyers to identify upgrade the applications can be managed and our clients. AppRx helps us in possibility. For those that did on an ongoing basis so that it this regard.” not present an upgrade path, would just be a part of normal the team would research day business.” Ivano Stellato, Director of Technology Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP additional possibilities. “I was sold on AppRx after I Investigations conducted by reviewed the results,” said Stellato. “To me, it was the team typically took two days per application. exactly the solution that could help me get to the The IT refresh project took a total of 3 months to modern design, and help sustain my IT complete, of which a quarter of that effort was environment.” dedicated to application upgrade / migration.
VIRTUALIZATION Cassels Brocks lawyers work around the world. As a result, every desktop managed by IT needs to be virtualized in order for the lawyers to be effective even while being remote. Stellato had just completed the virtualization efforts when he was introduced to the Futurestate IT solution. To validate the solution, Stellato verified the data provided by AppRx against the results from his virtualization team. The match-up showed that the AppRx findings were extremely accurate. “Using AppRx to test compatibility of our applications with XenApp saved us valuable resource time by automating the test process and providing us with detailed remediation reports in just a matter of minutes,” said Stellato.
ANOTHER RESOUNDING SUCCESS According to Stellato, what took his team two days to investigate per application, only took AppRx a few minutes to display. The implementation was extremely smooth. Stellato indicated that if he had known about Futurestate IT’s solution before they began the Windows 7 migration project, he would have saved drastically on his software migration efforts. Now that he is fully implemented, he is able to use the solution to keep his application portfolio current, at a fraction of the cost. “My system is less vulnerable, has less security issues, and less interruptions,” added Stellato. “AppRx has helped us lower cost, reduce risk, enhance performance, and drastically increase the ease to upgrade.”
Futurestate IT Inc. 14 Duncan Street, Suite 205, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3G8 1-888-424-9068 | www.futurestateit.com
[email protected] | @futurestateit | www.facebook.com/FuturestateIT | www.linkedin.com/company/futurestate-it © Copyright 2012. Futurestate IT Inc.
