As one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions, the University of Cambridge is renowned for its pursuit of excellence in teaching and research. Recently, the University of Cambridge is also leading the charge in transforming its decentralized IT operations into a modern, centralized, cloud-based service. At the heart of this transformation is a bold initiative to standardize desktop delivery and application management across more than 150 departments and 31 colleges – each of which were previously managing their own tools, infrastructure, and processes. The goal was to create a unified, secure, and scalable managed desktop environment that minimized technical debt from legacy tools without stripping departments of the flexibility they need to support specialized academic and research workloads. To support this transformation, Cambridge partnered with Rimo3 to automate its application validation, packaging, and patching processes; and support rapid OS upgrades from Windows 10 to Windows 11, freeing its IT teams to focus on innovation instead of repetitive tasks.
Objectives:
- Standardize desktop delivery and application management across 150+ departments and 31 colleges
- Minimize technical debt from legacy tools while maintaining departmental flexibility for academic workloads
- Automate application validation, packaging, and patching to accelerate OS upgrades and reduce manual IT effort
Challenges
Managing IT at Cambridge meant contending with decades of organic, decentralized growth. Departments often relied on in-house-developed solutions, creating technical debt and inconsistent user experiences across the various departments. IT teams experienced redundant and inconsistent processes, and faced difficulty scaling secure desktops across all users. Efforts to centralize desktop delivery were often hampered by a lack of visibility into application requirements and a manual, resource-intensive approach to packaging and testing.
Following the pandemic-driven shift to hybrid work, the urgency for modern, cloud-managed desktop infrastructure intensified. Microsoft Intune provided a way to centrally manage and deploy Windows devices, but application delivery remained a bottleneck. In some departments, IT teams were manually packaging and patching hundreds of applications – many of which they had no prior knowledge of. A centralized automated approach was essential, but how to deploy and maintain such a system at scale without overwhelming their internal IT teams?
Key challenges:
- Decades of decentralized IT created technical debt and inconsistent user experiences across departments
- Manual application packaging and patching strained IT resources and slowed deployments
- Limited visibility into app requirements made it difficult to scale and standardize desktop delivery using Microsoft Intune
Solutions
To address these challenges, the Rimo3 platform helped modernize how the University of Cambridge approached application testing, packaging, and desktop standardization across its 150+ departments.
- Delegated Application Testing at Scale: Rimo3 enabled junior IT staff and service desk members to manage packaging tasks that once required senior engineers—freeing central IT to focus on strategic delivery and allowing departments to retain autonomy.
- Automated Validation Across Diverse Environments: The platform automated testing and validation for hundreds of applications, ensuring they were functional, secure, and compatible—without sacrificing specialized academic needs.
- Cloud-Based UAT for Research Workloads: By supporting user acceptance testing in controlled cloud environments, researchers could validate unique modules and configurations before deployment, reducing rollout risks.
- Ongoing Revalidation for OS and Patch Management: Rimo3 allowed the university to revalidate applications against future OS versions and security patches—eliminating the need to rebuild packages from scratch and moving from reactive fixes to proactive testing.
“Rimo3 is a game-changer for us. It’s enabling us to scale a centrally managed desktop service across 150 departments without needing a huge team at the center.”
— Steve Hoinsch, Frontline Services Manager, UIS, University of Cambridge
Results
Using the Rimo3 platform transformed the University of Cambridge’s approach to managing application delivery, patching, and OS upgrades across a large, decentralized IT environment.
- Continuous Compatibility Testing: Rimo3 enabled ongoing app validation across departments, turning testing into a proactive, continuous process instead of a reactive, one-time event.
- Massive Time Savings: OS upgrades that once took months can now be validated and deployed overnight, eliminating full rebuilds and reducing the burden on IT.
- Scalable, Delegated Workflow: The university reduced reliance on senior IT specialists by empowering junior staff and local departments to own the “final mile” of app deployment.
- Future-Proof IT Operations: With automated pipelines in place, Cambridge can test against future OS versions and patches, keeping systems secure and deployments agile.
Key Results:
- Continuous Compatibility Testing
- Overnight OS Upgrades
- Scalable, Delegated App Management
- Future-Proofed Environment with Reduced Risk
Conclusion
The University of Cambridge is proving that modern IT service delivery doesn’t have to come at the cost of flexibility or academic freedom. By automating the tedious but critical aspects of IT, such as app packaging, patch validation, and OS readiness with Rimo3, the university enabled smarter, faster, and more collaborative technology operations at scale. Researchers can innovate, IT teams can partner across departments, and the university is ready for whatever comes next – whether it's the next OS upgrade, a new remote work policy, or the next breakthrough in global education. The result is a future-ready institution where IT no longer serves as a constraint but as a catalyst for progress.
About Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is one of the world’s most prestigious academic institutions, known for excellence in education, research, and innovation.
With a legacy dating back to 1209, Cambridge supports over 150 departments and 31 colleges, delivering cutting-edge teaching and breakthrough research across a wide range of disciplines.
Combining academic tradition with a forward-thinking approach to technology, Cambridge is committed to building a secure, scalable, and modern IT environment that empowers students, faculty, and researchers to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital world.
