State agency modernizes Horizon VDI on Azure and cuts recurring issues

Heavy reliance on physical data centers and hardware refresh cycles, with limited ability to scale quickly for remote and hybrid work surges.

Ongoing problems with profile persistence, PDF defaults, Teams and Zoom performance and printing, especially from Chromebooks and Wyse endpoints.

Gold image sprawl and fragile application packaging that made change risky.

Carbon Black agents that consumed resources and generated false positives inside VDI.

Ticket-by-ticket firefighting instead of decisions based on telemetry and patterns.

Z7 enabled Horizon Cloud on Azure Gen 1 to add cloud elasticity and reduce dependence on physical hardware. After identifying the limits of the appliance-based Gen 1 model, such as slower updates and vendor-dependent fixes, Z7 moved the agency to Gen 2 for a cloud-native control plane, faster brokering, tighter integration with Azure identity and telemetry, and better scale for hybrid work. Gen 2 now serves as the backbone of the EUC stack for both cloud and on-premises workloads.

FSLogix profile containers replaced roaming and traditional local profiles, while DEM stayed in place for granular user and application settings. Z7 tuned GPO sequencing and FSLogix settings to fix printer persistence, Num Lock resets, taskbar and icon behavior, Chrome and Adobe default handling, and Teams and Zoom performance.

Z7 implemented Turbo SaaS and its packaging studio, then rebuilt critical applications, including Adobe and PDF tools, browsers, Office, productivity apps, CAD and line-of-business software, as Turbo containers. This resolved long-standing PDF default and Adobe licensing conflicts. The containers can be delivered to Horizon Cloud Gen 1 and Gen 2, Horizon on premises and AVD pools.

Z7 upgraded Wyse ThinOS firmware, fixed USB redirection, audio breaks and peripheral drops, and standardized Horizon client versions in line with Horizon Cloud Gen 2. On Chromebooks, Z7 resolved remote printing and profile persistence issues and aligned Chrome identity and policies so users could launch Horizon reliably. Windows laptops and desktops continued to receive patching, hardening and Group Policy optimization through ongoing managed services.

Z7 removed Carbon Black agents and replaced them with SentinelOne in key pools, then validated SentinelOne behavior inside gold images and Turbo containers. Allow lists and policies were tuned to avoid conflicts with FSLogix, Turbo and Horizon Cloud.

Omnissa Intelligence provided device experience scoring, performance telemetry, anomaly detection and policy drift insights, while HaloPSA handled ticket classification, trend analysis, root cause mapping and SLA tracking. Together, these tools let Z7 and the agency group issues into patterns, prioritize tuning of FSLogix, DEM, Turbo containers, Wyse and Chrome clients and SentinelOne policies, and measure the impact of changes over time.

Faster average logons on Horizon Cloud Gen 2 than pre-cloud Horizon (approximate).

Fewer profile, application, printing and peripheral issues in FSLogix pools (approximate).

Fewer recurring issue categories over 24 months (approximate).

Average logon times in Horizon Cloud Gen 2 are roughly 20 to 30 percent faster than in the pre-cloud Horizon environment.

Profile, application, printing and peripheral issues in FSLogix-enabled pools dropped by about 25 to 40 percent, and the logon experience became more predictable.

Turbo containers eliminated many regression patterns that used to appear after traditional gold image updates, making application updates easier to test and roll out.

SentinelOne strengthened overall security posture with fewer false positives and lower resource use than Carbon Black in VDI pools.

Wyse and Chromebook reliability improved significantly after firmware and client alignment.

Recurring issue categories fell by roughly 30 to 50 percent over a 24-month period, freeing staff for proactive work instead of repeat incidents.