University of South Wales

In 2024, the University of South Wales (USW) found itself at a critical juncture. As part of a bold, university-wide cloud-first strategy, the institution was facing a non-negotiable deadline: migrate all core digital services to the cloud by the end of the year, and fully retire its on-premise server infrastructure.

For the End User Computing team, this meant rethinking the way thousands of students and staff accessed academic software, and doing it fast. The pressure was on to not only meet the deadline, but to do so without disrupting the student experience or compromising the performance of their already reliable on-prem systems.

A Cloud-first mission with no room for downtime

With three campuses across Pontypridd, Cardiff and Newport, and more than 12,000 active students and 2,000 staff, USW’s digital footprint was substantial. Their existing software delivery setup relied on 12 servers and 3TB of data: a solid, performant on-premise environment with AppsAnywhere at the core. Although the current setup worked well, there was a strategic imperative to replace it with a similar, if not better performing system, based in the cloud.

The challenge wasn’t just to find a new solution. It was to find the right solution, one that could:

1. Replicate or outperform the current setup
2. Integrate cleanly with AppsAnywhere and their existing Intune and JAMF device management frameworks
3. Support over 300 Windows applications
4. And be deployed, tested, and operational within months

Why AppsAnywhere Cloud?

USW evaluated a range of alternatives but quickly realised that no other solution could match the performance, integration, and delivery flexibility of their current environment – except AppsAnywhere Cloud.

They weren’t just migrating, they were rebuilding. Working closely with the AppsAnywhere team, USW created a greenfield deployment, shedding outdated packages and refreshing application metadata (including Welsh translations). Cloudpaging would now handle 95% of Windows software delivery, backed by AppsAnywhere’s Cloud-hosted infrastructure and analytics.

The switch wasn’t just technical – it was strategic. By moving to AppsAnywhere Cloud, the university retained everything that made their software delivery successful, while offloading the heavy lifting of infrastructure management and updates.

Under pressure: a fast-tracked migration

The clock was ticking. USW began work in the early Autumn term. Their goal? Complete the transition before the Christmas break, giving them a head start on the broader university cloud retirement deadline.

The project unfolded in carefully managed phases:

1. AppsAnywhere SaaS environment was configured using their existing Azure setup.
2. Application packages were uploaded, tested under load, and refined for delivery via Cloudpaging.
3. A new SAML-based Azure Enterprise App replaced legacy LDAP connections, streamlining access controls.
4. Applications were re-tested to ensure stability in the new environment.

By December 18th, the cutover was complete. No downtime. No disruptions. And most impressively, no complaints from users.

“It felt like a risk, but it paid off… the migration itself couldn’t have gone better or been easier,” said Chris McCarthy, End User Compute Development Team Leader.

With this cloud migration, the University of South Wales raised the bar again for reliable and effective performance, enabling more capacity within the team and more transparency for data-informed decision making. This means that going forward, any future upgrades or server administration will be handled by AppsAnywhere, with the same seamless performance as the migration itself.

As more institutions are having to do increasingly more with fewer resources or budget, AppsAnywhere is committed to extend our expertise to better support the sector. Built on our Microsoft Azure-backed platform, with an industry standard minimum uptime of 99.9%, AppsAnywhere Cloud is one of the many ways we offer excellent quality service and expertise, as an extension to your own IT team. To learn more about AppsAnywhere Cloud, check out this brochure or talk to your Customer Success Manager.