Modernising Remote Development Environment

Client & Context

A UK-based software development company with approximately 200 employees, primarily developers working on web and mobile applications. The company had moved to fully remote working during the pandemic and struggled with their existing VPN-based infrastructure.

The Challenge

The company's development environment relied heavily on VPN connections to access on-premises build servers and development tools. Developers reported:

• Frequent VPN disconnections requiring manual reconnection
• Slow file transfer speeds impacting build times
• Inconsistent performance depending on location and home internet quality
• Difficulty onboarding new developers due to complex setup requirements
• Security concerns about developers storing code on personal devices

These issues were causing significant frustration and impacting developer productivity, with the CTO estimating 3-5 hours per developer per week lost to infrastructure problems.

What We Did

Working closely with the company's internal IT team, we designed and implemented a migration to AWS WorkSpaces:

• Assessment and planning: Reviewed current development workflows, tool requirements, and performance expectations
• Architecture design: Designed WorkSpaces configuration optimised for development workloads, including appropriate instance types and storage
• Pilot programme: Migrated 20 developers first to validate the approach and gather feedback
• Phased rollout: Migrated remaining developers in manageable batches over 6 weeks
• Documentation and training: Created runbooks for common tasks and trained the internal IT team on day-to-day management

Outcomes and Metrics

• 80% reduction in connection-related support tickets in the first 3 months post-migration
• Developer satisfaction scores improved from 6.2/10 to 8.7/10 in internal surveys
• New developer onboarding time reduced from 2 days to 4 hours thanks to standardised environments
• Consistent build performance regardless of developer location
• Clear cost predictability with documented monthly running costs

"The migration to WorkSpaces has been transformative for our team. Developers can now focus on writing code instead of fighting with VPN connections. The CloudWorks team delivered exactly what they promised, on time and with excellent documentation."

What Happens Next

The company's internal IT team now manages the WorkSpaces environment day-to-day, with CloudWorks providing occasional advisory support for capacity planning and optimisation. The success of this project has led to discussions about modernising other parts of their infrastructure.