Azure & Cloud Services · Thunder Bay
Your servers and desktops, running in Azure. Run by people you can call.
Cloud desktops, hosted servers, accounting systems and identity in Microsoft Azure — designed, migrated and looked after by a Northern Ontario team. Billed at cost plus a published markup, so the Azure line on your invoice is never a mystery.
The server in the back room is a liability now.
Most Northern Ontario organisations we meet still have one: an ageing box holding the file share, the accounting database and the domain, with staff at other sites or at home reaching it over a VPN that drops when the weather turns. When it fails, everything stops, and the people who know how it was built have usually moved on.
Azure replaces that box with servers and desktops in a Microsoft data centre in Canada that staff reach from any site with the same sign-in they use for Microsoft 365. We design it, move you onto it, and run it afterwards as part of your managed IT plan, with backup and recovery treated as a first-class part of the build rather than an afterthought.
- Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 cloud desktops
- Hosted domain controllers, file servers and accounting systems
- Microsoft Entra ID hybrid identity and single sign-on
- Migration runbooks written, reviewed and rehearsed before cutover
- Autoscaling, monitoring and patching after go-live
- Azure consumption billed in arrears at cost plus 20%, itemised
When people call us about this
- The file server is out of warranty and nobody wants to buy another
- Sage or QuickBooks has to be shared across two offices
- Staff sign in twice with two passwords that drift apart
- Someone inherited an Azure environment and cannot explain the bill
- A remote-desktop port is open to the internet and the insurer noticed
What we design and run
Built for the way Northern Ontario organisations actually work: several sites, thin connections, and no in-house Azure engineer.
Azure Virtual Desktop
Pooled session hosts that staff reach from any device and any site. We size the hosts from measured memory use, set autoscaling to follow the working day, keep profiles in containers with a verified backup, and turn on single sign-on so nobody types a second password.
Windows 365 Cloud PC
A dedicated cloud PC for each user at a fixed monthly price, managed through the Microsoft 365 admin centre you already have. Simpler than Azure Virtual Desktop and usually the right answer for smaller teams. We will tell you which one fits before you buy either.
Hosted Servers & Accounting Systems
Domain controllers, file servers and line-of-business applications such as Sage 50 and QuickBooks, hosted in Azure and reached from the cloud desktops beside them. Patched, monitored and image-backed-up on a schedule, with the antivirus exclusions the application vendor actually asks for.
Microsoft Entra ID & Hybrid Identity
One identity and one password across your on-premises directory, Microsoft 365 and the cloud desktops, with multi-factor authentication and Conditional Access in front of it. We connect the directories, verify single sign-on against real user sessions, and retire the old domain name when it no longer matches who you are.
Migration to Azure
Servers, shares and applications moved on a written runbook that is reviewed by a second engineer before anyone touches production. Access, backups and the accounting system are protected from the first day, and the cutover is rehearsed so the go-live weekend holds no surprises.
Cost & Licensing Control
Reserved Instances where the workload is steady, autoscaling where it is not, disks that step down when a host is off, and a check that every Azure Hybrid Benefit claim is backed by a licence you actually own. Azure is billed to you at cost plus 20% from your prior-month usage, itemised, with the vendor detail available on request.
Windows 365 or Azure Virtual Desktop?
Both give staff a Windows desktop in the cloud. They suit different organisations, and we run both.
Windows 365 fits when
- Each person needs their own persistent desktop
- You want one fixed price per user and no Azure subscription to manage
- The team is small and there is no shared server application to sit beside it
- Simplicity matters more than tuning
Azure Virtual Desktop fits when
- Many people share a pool of hosts and usage rises and falls through the day
- A hosted accounting system or file server lives in the same network
- You want autoscaling to switch capacity off outside working hours
- You are prepared to have someone run it, which is what we do
The longer comparison, including what happens to each when the internet drops, is in our post Windows 365 vs Azure Virtual Desktop.
Where the data sits
Azure has two regions in Canada, Canada Central in Toronto and Canada East in Québec City. We build in a Canadian region by default, so your servers, desktops and backups stay in the country. That is a real answer for a board, a funder, a health authority or a First Nation asking where the records physically are.
Residency is not the whole story, and we will not pretend it is. Microsoft is a U.S. company subject to U.S. law regardless of region. What that does and does not mean is set out in our note on Canadian data sovereignty, and we would rather you read it before you sign than after.
Real engagements
Two passwords, two directories, one very old domain name
cloud desktops, hybrid identity and single sign-on for a multi-site organisation — anonymised, with no invented figures.
The backup had been protecting a share that no longer existed
what we found when we took over an Azure Virtual Desktop environment someone else had built.
See all case studies →