End user computing · 2024

Nine hours to thirty minutes: automated desktop provisioning

Remote engineering team

A custom automation that created AWS Workspaces in batches from a CSV imported through Active Directory, for a remote desktop rollout that had been manual.

9h → 30mPer-desktop provisioning time

BatchProvisioning from a single CSV

The problem

Every new remote desktop was built by hand. Around nine hours of an engineer's time per user, repeated for every joiner, with the inconsistencies that always follow manual builds.

What we did

We built the Workspace bundles and a custom AMI, prioritised the rollout by department, and wrote an automation that provisions Workspaces in batches from a CSV imported through Active Directory. The build became a repeatable artifact rather than a task.