Amazon WorkSpaces helps Ferrari reduce virtual desktop deployment times by 90%

Ferrari is a global automotive manufacturer known for its luxury, high-performance cars, and for taking part in the Formula 1 World Championship and GT series. The company works with developers, engineers, and other external collaborators in various countries, including Italy, Germany, and India. “We develop brilliant cars, and for this reason, we need to protect our intellectual property,” says Giovanni Longobardi, Cloud Operations Manager at Ferrari. “At the same time, we need to provide our collaborators located in various regions around the world with secure access to data and other resources so that they can work with us.”

Previously, these users relied on a VDI solution that Ferrari hosted and managed on premises, which presented major limitations. It could take days for a virtual desktop instance to be ready for a new user due to IT resource constraints and procurement lead times for new infrastructure and licenses. Ferrari needed a more agile and scalable solution to streamline virtual desktop deployment and facilitate swift and efficient collaboration. To improve efficiency and better serve its end users, Ferrari decided to replace its on-premises VDI solution with Amazon WorkSpaces.  

After selecting Amazon WorkSpaces, Ferrari integrated the service with its existing AWS infrastructure and deployed it as part of a pilot program for the Ferrari IT operations team. Through this pilot program, Ferrari implemented automatic provisioning capabilities, greatly enhancing delivery speed and time to productivity for users.

To enable automatic provisioning, Ferrari adopted AWS services such as AWS Lambda, a serverless, event-driven compute service, and Maintenance Windows for AWS Systems Manager, a secure management solution that lets users define and optimize maintenance schedules. After the Amazon WorkSpaces image is prepared, an automatic provisioning solution is activated using AWS Lambda, and a new virtual desktop instance is created in minutes. The solution then adds the new user to the appropriate Microsoft Active Directory group. Ferrari estimates that it can deploy new users 90 percent faster than before. Now, it takes only 1 hour for the virtual desktop to be ready for the user, compared to days with the previous on-premises VDI solution.

“Before adopting Amazon WorkSpaces, our IT staff had to prepare the image, install software, and perform many other manual tasks, which would take days,” says Longobardi. “Because Amazon WorkSpaces integrates so well with other AWS services, including AWS Lambda, we developed a solution that automates this process, removes repetitive tasks, and reduces time to deploy a new virtual desktop by 90 percent.”

By integrating Amazon WorkSpaces with AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) to create, manage, and control cryptographic keys across applications and AWS services, Ferrari facilitates secure access for remote and hybrid workers and safeguards sensitive company information against unauthorized access and other potential security threats.

Amazon WorkSpaces has helped Ferrari reduce capital expenditures. The company only pays for the resources it uses, and because Amazon WorkSpaces offers a license-included model, it can avoid long-term licensing commitments. This also simplifies the management of software licenses. When Ferrari deprovisions an end user’s virtual desktop, the license is also automatically deprovisioned.

Ferrari has also seen significant productivity gains, with manual provisioning tasks now fully managed by an efficient, automated solution that reduces the workload on the company’s internal IT team. In addition, the reduction in manual processes decreases the likelihood of human errors—enhancing the reliability and efficiency of Ferrari’s IT operations.

The adoption of Amazon WorkSpaces by Ferrari marks a transformative step in the company’s support of its external collaborators on a global scale. End users highlighted the speed of deployment and flexibility offered by Amazon WorkSpaces. “During this journey, we collected feedback from our users,” says Longobardi. “They love the fact that they can have a new virtual desktop, with all their applications installed, up and running within an hour or so. Amazon WorkSpaces has been a great solution for them.”

Ferrari plans to migrate its remaining VDI users to Amazon WorkSpaces, expanding the solution to support additional business units. With a more cost-effective, agile, and efficient working environment, the company is positioned to invest in future innovations, harnessing the AWS Cloud to improve the quality of its global collaborations.

“Thanks to the simple integration between Amazon WorkSpaces and other AWS services and support for our software requirements, we accelerated the onboarding process for new users,” says Longobardi. “We significantly improved productivity and user experience for our hybrid and remote collaborators.”