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:
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:
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.
“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
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.
Key Results:
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.
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.