Case Studies
Essex Court needed a partner to enable them to migrate away from legacy infrastructure, improve reliability, reduce costs, and do it all without disrupting operations.
About Essex Court Chambers
Essex Court Chambers is one of the UK’s leading sets of barristers’ chambers, with a global reputation for handling high-profile commercial disputes, arbitration, and public international law. Known for their meticulous legal work and courtroom excellence, the Chambers represents some of the most demanding clients in the legal world.
The challenge: rising risks and a need for change
In such a high-stakes environment, where the smooth running of technology can directly impact casework and client satisfaction, dependable IT infrastructure is critical. But over time, Essex Court’s systems were no longer meeting expectations. Their Citrix-based environment had become unreliable, with session dropouts interrupting productivity and frustrating users. Performance issues started to affect business-critical legal workflows, while Citrix licensing continued to incur high ongoing costs.
Also, servers were still running on Windows Server 2016, edging toward end-of-life support, and placing growing pressure on their internal IT team to maintain performance and security.
The situation reached a tipping point when their hosting data centre announced it would be shutting down, setting a hard deadline for relocation. Essex Court faced a major challenge: they needed to migrate away from legacy infrastructure, improve reliability, reduce costs, and do it all without disrupting operations.
The solution: migrating to Azure
The need for a reliable, cost-effective, and future-ready environment was clear and Essex Court required a quick and secure solution. The goal: eliminate legacy systems, improve performance, and build a secure and scalable cloud platform. Essex Court turned to Ekco, a trusted cloud partner, with proven expertise in Microsoft Azure and complex cloud migrations, to lead the transition. But beyond the technical capabilities, it was the team’s strategic foresight and meticulous planning that sealed the decision.
Ekco took a holistic view of the project: anticipating risks, expanding the scope where necessary, and ensuring best practices through adherence to Microsoft’s Azure Well Architected framework. Their vendor-agnostic mindset ensured there were no single points of failure or future lock-in. Importantly, Ekco’s approach allowed Essex Court to eliminate Citrix licensing costs and make full use of their existing Microsoft 365 environment, delivering immediate financial benefits alongside technical improvements. For Essex Court it was clear: with Ekco they were laying the foundation for future scalability and long-term best practice.
Getting there: a seamless switch
Right from the beginning, it was evident that this would involve more than just a simple relocation. Ekco’s team worked closely with stakeholders at Essex Court to map out a complete migration strategy; one that covered far more than just remote desktop services. The project included transitioning file servers, Active Directory, application servers, and business-critical tools such as Sage and Lex into the Microsoft cloud. Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) would become the new standard for remote access, providing a modern, stable alternative to the old Citrix setup.
The entire migration was executed over a single weekend. Thanks to a tight and realistic schedule, proactive risk mitigation, and the presence of Ekco engineers on-site, the switch was seamless. On Monday morning, barristers and staff logged into their systems without any disruptions. Only now, the platform was faster, more stable, and better equipped to handle the demands of modern legal work.
The outcome: A stable and straightforward platform for growth
The impact was immediate. Performance issues disappeared, and users reported a significantly smoother experience. The number of IT support tickets dropped, giving internal teams more time to focus on value-adding work. Meanwhile, Essex Court’s infrastructure was upgraded to Windows Server 2022, delivering enhanced security, speed, and resilience.
But the project didn’t stop with infrastructure. The migration laid the groundwork for ongoing collaboration between Ekco and Essex Court. Today, the partnership continues to evolve, with Ekco supporting the Chambers on new initiatives including network and Wi-Fi upgrades, vulnerability scanning, and 24/7 managed security operations. With Ekco as their cloud partner, Essex Court now operates on a robust, future-proof platform that supports their continued excellence in legal practice.
Question?
Our specialists have the answer