Project Description

The Care Inspectorate is Scotland’s national scrutiny body for care services. Supporting a largely remote workforce, they rely on a Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) environment serving up to 150 users to access internal systems securely and efficiently. 

To maintain high standards of reliability, security, and compliance, the Care Inspectorate partnered with Bridgeall to manage and support their AVD platform. We provide 24/7 monitoring, proactive maintenance, and expert guidance, ensuring the environment meets NCSC and Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+) standards while freeing up their IT team to focus on strategic initiatives. 

About Care Inspectorate

The Care Inspectorate is the Scottish body responsible for regulating and inspecting care services to ensure they are safe and of high quality. Its vision is that everyone in Scotland receives care that meets their needs, rights, and choices.  

The organisation inspects a wide range of care services, supports improvement in the sector, and works with other regulators on joint inspections of local services.

Challenges facing Care Inspectorate

Before engaging with Bridgeall for Azure Virtual Desktop managed support services, the Care Inspectorate faced several key challenges: 

  • Aging infrastructure and contract expiry: The existing AVD support contract was nearing its end (March 2025), requiring a seamless transition to avoid service disruption. 
  • Complex multi-server environment: The system comprised 19 servers supporting critical operations for external users accessing internal networks. 
  • Cybersecurity compliance: The organisation needed to maintain NCSC and CE+ compliance across all systems, ensuring monthly patching, secure configuration, and proactive threat monitoring. 
  • Limited in-house resources: The Care Inspectorate required a trusted partner to provide specialist cloud management, backup processes, and 24/7 monitoring, freeing their internal IT team to focus on strategic projects. 
  • Performance reliability: With over 50 concurrent users daily, uptime and responsiveness were critical. The service needed to achieve 99.9% availability and a 1-hour response time SLA. 

The Service

Following a competitive tender process, Bridgeall were appointed to deliver the Azure Virtual Desktop Managed Support service for the Care Inspectorate, based on our proven AVD expertise, strong security credentials, 24/7 monitoring capability, and ability to meet strict SLAs while providing collaborative, responsive support.

Our approach included: 

  • Proactive Monitoring & Support: 24/7 monitoring with automated alerts, regular reporting, and business-hour support with SLA-driven response times. 
  • Security & Compliance: System hardening, patch management, and managed endpoint protection aligned with NCSC and CE+ standards. 
  • Backup & Recovery: Daily backups with clear documentation to support business continuity. 
  • Performance Management: Reliable, high-performing environment with 99.9% uptime. 

 

Results – Benefits to the client

Through our Azure Virtual Desktop Managed Support service, the Care Inspectorate achieved: 

  • Improved reliability and uptime – consistent 99.9% service availability supporting uninterrupted access for remote staff. 
  • Enhanced cybersecurity posture – full compliance with NCSC and Cyber Essentials Plus requirements, reducing risk exposure. 
  • Greater operational efficiency – IT teams freed from day-to-day maintenance to focus on service innovation and user support. 
  • Data protection and resilience – robust backup, restore, and recovery processes ensuring no data loss or downtime. 
  • Predictable costs and scalability – a clear pricing model and contract structure (£60,000–£120,000 over the life of the contract) providing financial clarity and room for growth. 

By taking ownership of the Care Inspectorate’s Azure Virtual Desktop environment, we delivered a secure, compliant, and high-performing platform that underpins their mission to ensure quality care across Scotland. Our proactive management approach, combined with deep expertise in cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity, continues to provide the Care Inspectorate with confidence, reliability, and peace of mind in their digital operations. 

Azure Virtual Desktop Consultancy and Support Services 

At Bridgeall, we are a leading Azure Virtual Desktop consultancy partner. We help organisations take the complexity out of cloud infrastructure, security, and compliance. Whether you need 24/7 managed services, Azure Virtual Desktop expertise, or proactive monitoring and support, our team delivers solutions that keep your systems reliable, secure, and scalable. 

Contact our team to explore how we can help your organisation achieve seamless, secure, and high-performing digital operations.