CASE STUDY

Cloud-Based Virtual Workspaces Management for NewCo Tax

Financial Services

Executive Summary

NewCo Tax, a distributed team of accounting professionals, needed a secure and scalable desktop solution to support their expanding remote workforce—especially during the high-pressure tax season. Their previous setup lacked centralized control, created security vulnerabilities, and was inefficient for onboarding seasonal staff. Aligned Technology Group deployed and now manages Amazon WorkSpaces for NewCo Tax, delivering virtual desktops that offer centralized management, enhanced security, and remote onboarding without IT overhead. As a result, the company achieved zero downtime during tax season, improved its security posture, and significantly reduced IT operational hours and total cost of ownership (TCO).

Customer Overview

NewCo Tax is a professional tax and accounting services firm with a growing team of full-time and seasonal employees spread across multiple locations. The organization provides personalized tax support for individuals and small businesses, relying on secure systems to handle sensitive financial data and deliver services efficiently during peak seasons.

Situation

NewCo Tax required a desktop environment that could:

  • Support a fully remote workforce year-round

  • Handle rapid onboarding and offboarding of seasonal employees

  • Offer centralized security and management controls

  • Operate reliably without requiring onsite IT support

Their existing infrastructure fell short—desktop provisioning was time-consuming, data security was fragmented, and IT resources were strained during busy periods like tax season.

Task

NewCo Tax partnered with Aligned Technology Group (ATG) to:

  • Design a virtual desktop environment to support remote and seasonal employees

  • Implement a secure, scalable, and easy-to-manage infrastructure

  • Enable fast and secure onboarding of staff during peak times

  • Provide ongoing management to minimize administrative overhead

Action

ATG deployed a managed Amazon WorkSpaces solution with the following key components:

  • Directory Integration: Created a dedicated WorkSpaces directory to centrally manage users

  • Custom Virtual Desktops: Provisioned Windows-based desktops tailored to each role

  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Implemented MFA to enhance security access controls

  • File Storage: Integrated Amazon WorkDocs for secure document collaboration and sharing

  • Provisioning and Management: Handled all provisioning, deprovisioning, and support to free up NewCo’s internal IT team

  • Encryption: Ensured encryption of data in transit and at rest, adhering to best practices for data protection

ATG Engagement & Expertise

Aligned Technology Group acted as a turnkey provider for the entire virtual desktop lifecycle—from deployment to daily management. By utilizing console-based administration, ATG enabled seamless remote onboarding, centralized control, and strong security compliance without requiring NewCo to invest in additional IT headcount or hardware. A full TCO analysis was also performed to validate long-term financial benefits.

Result

  • 100% Remote Onboarding: All employees onboarded without requiring in-person IT intervention

  • Zero Downtime: Tax season operations continued without any service interruption

  • Enhanced Security: MFA and network control policies hardened the organization’s security posture

  • Improved Operational Efficiency: Centralized virtual desktop management streamlined workflows

  • Reduced IT Hours by 60%: Dramatic drop in manual IT tasks related to provisioning and troubleshooting

  • Lower TCO: Compared to maintaining physical desktops, Amazon WorkSpaces resulted in significant cost savings over time

Last Updated on April 15, 2025 by Lauryn Colatuno

Cost Optimization

Issue: Small AWS deployment with little management oversight and a lack of cloud skills internal to the organization moving from traditional infrastructure to SaaS and cloud based solutions.

 

What we did

  1. AWS Audit
  2. Cost Optimization Review
  3. Ongoing Monitoring

 

Result:

  • Eliminated unused storage volumes and the old application server no longer in use, the charges for AWS resulted in a savings of 51% per month.
  • We’ll continue to monitor AWS billing and finance to ensure maintenance of savings and identify other future changes.

Cost Optimization

Issue: Small AWS deployment with little management oversight and a lack of cloud skills internal to the organization moving from traditional infrastructure to SaaS and cloud based solutions.

 

What we did

  1. AWS Audit
  2. Cost Optimization Review
  3. Ongoing Monitoring

 

Result:

  • Eliminated unused storage volumes and the old application server no longer in use, the charges for AWS resulted in a savings of 51% per month.
  • We’ll continue to monitor AWS billing and finance to ensure maintenance of savings and identify other future changes.