• Azure Virtual Desktop. Your firm's desktop, hosted in Azure.

    The same desktop, applications, files and printers — available from the office, home, court or wherever your staff need to work.

    STAFF EXPERIENCE

    How It Works

    For Your Staff

    Staff use the Windows App on their existing laptop or desktop to connect to their Cloud PC. They sign in with their Microsoft 365 account and open the same firm desktop whether they are in the office, at home, in court or working remotely.

    No VPN. No separate remote desktop setup. No difference between the in-office and remote working experience.

    Applications

    Firm applications are installed inside the Cloud PC environment, not on each user’s local device. Practice management systems such as Affinity and Practice Evolve are hosted close to the desktop environment, helping them operate consistently for staff.

    Microsoft 365 Apps, dictation, PDF tools and other business applications are standardised and made available consistently across the Cloud PC environment.

    Crucially, Microsoft Teams and Zoom audio and video are configured to work inside the Cloud PC environment.

    Servers in Azure

    Your practice management database server, file, print and supporting application servers are hosted in Microsoft Azure. This removes the need to run servers from the office and simplifies the local environment to the essentials: a reliable internet connection, local networking and office printers.

    Files and Documents

    Matter documents remain stored in your practice management system. Shared file structures, mapped drives and document workflows remain familiar to users, with the underlying storage hosted and protected in Azure.

    Printing

    Printing continues to your office printers through a secure connection between Azure and each office location.

    PLATFORM DESIGN

    What Sits Behind Your Cloud PC

    • New Zealand North region — We typically host Cloud PC environments in Microsoft’s New Zealand North region. This region supports Availability zones, which are physically separate datacentre locations with independent power, cooling and networking. This allows us to design Cloud PC environments for greater resilience, using options such as zone-redundant Azure Files and AVD session hosts placed across multiple zones.
    • Azure Virtual Desktop control plane — Azure Virtual Desktop is a Microsoft-managed cloud service, not Remote Desktop Gateway or Citrix Gateway infrastructure that Innessco needs to install, patch and operate. Microsoft provides the connection layer that authenticates users and securely connects them to the correct Cloud PC session host.
    • Cloud PC session hosts — Staff desktops run on Azure-hosted Windows virtual machines that Innessco installs, patches and operates. Session hosts are sized for your applications, users and performance requirements, and can be scaled as your firm grows.
    • Azure server environment — Application servers, database servers and print servers are hosted in Azure as Windows virtual machines alongside the Cloud PC session hosts. This keeps the desktop, application and data close together, which is important for server-based systems such as Affinity and Practice Evolve.
    • Azure Files — Azure Files is a Microsoft-managed cloud file storage service, not a Windows file server VM that Innessco needs to patch and maintain. We use Azure Files for Affinity matter documents, shared document stores and mapped drives.
    • User profiles — We use FSLogix profile containers stored on Azure Files so user settings, Outlook profiles and application preferences follow staff within the Cloud PC platform.
    • Secure networking — The environment uses Azure virtual networking, private addressing, Network Security Groups and Azure VPN Gateway to control connectivity between Cloud PCs, servers, Azure Files and office locations.
    • Security and monitoring — Microsoft Defender, Huntress, MFA, New Zealand-only sign-in controls, security baselines and Secure Score management are applied across the Cloud PC platform and supporting servers.
    • Backups and recovery — Application servers and firm data are protected with monitored daily backups, immutable backup protection and restore readiness checks. Standard retention is 30 days unless a different period is agreed.

    Best For

    • Firms using Affinity, Practice Evolve or another server-based practice management system
    • Firms wanting to move office servers into a managed Azure environment
    • Firms that want a more resilient platform than office-hosted servers
    • Firms with staff working across the office, home, court or multiple locations
    • Firms that want better control over where firm data is accessed and stored
    • Firms that want to simplify the local office to internet, networking and printers
    • Firms planning growth, office moves or hybrid working arrangements