10ZiG Technology announced that The Salvation Army has rolled out modernized thin client devices across 750 locations throughout the UK. The deployment supports the organization’s broader digital transformation initiative, enhancing its endpoint infrastructure and supporting its virtual desktop and data center environments.
Founded over 160 years ago, The Salvation Army is a Christian church and charity that works in 134 countries worldwide. It is one of the largest providers of social care in the UK and Ireland, with more than 600 churches and community centers, complemented by a network of life houses which support people facing homelessness, addiction and other forms of vulnerability.
Across the UK, The Salvation Army today supports around 7,000 users on its IT estate, spanning its London headquarters, divisional headquarters, churches and life houses.
A phased transition from Citrix to Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop
The Salvation Army has a long history with virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), having first introduced Terminal Services in 2006 before moving to Citrix in 2010 as its needs matured.
Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization has moved to a hybrid work model. The Salvation Army’s move to its new Denmark Hill headquarters in London in 2023 augmented this as a hot-desk working environment was introduced, with staff connecting their personal laptops to shared screens, keyboards and mice.
In tandem, The Salvation Army began building a Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) environment to underpin computing at its remote divisional, church and life house sites, reflecting its wider move from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. As AVD has become established, all remote endpoints have been transitioned onto it, with the Citrix platform to be retired after the current license period ends.
“Moving to AVD has made a real difference,” says Neil Edmonds, Head of IT Infrastructure at The Salvation Army. “Logon times are significantly faster, profile management is simpler and the digital experience for our users is far better.”
Replacing an aging thin client estate
In addition to the shift to AVD, The Salvation Army needed to replace aging Dell Wyse thin client terminals. A thorough evaluation of different vendors was undertaken before 10ZiG was chosen.
“What attracted me to 10ZiG was the level of personal engagement they gave us. They came to meet us, took us through the devices and supported us properly through a proof of concept,” explains Edmonds. “When we hit some early connectivity challenges, they took direct ownership of resolving them – visiting our sites rather than simply logging a ticket. It felt like a proper relationship, not a transactional one and that’s what convinced us this was the right product and the right partner.”
The Salvation Army has since standardized on 10ZiG, procuring around 1,500 devices from reseller partner, Phoenix Software, including both 4672q and 7072q endpoints, alongside 10ZiG’s RepurpOS software, which has been used to convert some existing Dell Wyse terminals.
Deploying at scale: nearly 750 sites nationwide
The rollout was split into two to reflect the different scale and location of Salvation Army sites. A large-site rollout, covering around 100 premises including life houses and divisional headquarters, was carried out on-site by specialist partner, BNR, who removed the previous terminals and installed the new 10ZiG devices.
For its smaller sites – around 600 Salvation Army churches and community centres located in towns across the UK – the organisation developed a postal rollout model. Each site received a pre-configured 10ZiG device, ready to connect straight to the network, together with clear instructions and a return bag for the outgoing terminal. “Because the devices arrive pre-configured, there’s no reimaging and no technician needed on-site – it was a zero-touch deployment,” explains Edmonds. “If a unit ever develops a fault, we can simply post out a replacement and it’s back up and running in minutes, with no data recovery and nothing to reinstall.”
Holding no local data also delivers a security benefit for an organisation working across hundreds of sites, reducing the risk from lost or stolen devices. Day to day, the estate is managed centrally through 10ZiG Manager which The Salvation Army’s infrastructure team use to update firmware, push configuration changes and maintain consistency across the estate. “The team find 10ZiG Manager lightweight and efficient to work with and that’s been a breath of fresh air,” says Edmonds.
Part of a wider digital transformation
The move to 10ZiG and AVD sits within a broader modernization of The Salvation Army’s technology estate. In parallel, the organization has been migrating its data center workloads from VMware to Microsoft Hyper-V, moving away from a colocation facility in Surrey towards a hybrid model that balances on-premises infrastructure with Microsoft Azure.
Taken together, the shift from Citrix to AVD, from Dell Wyse to 10ZiG and from VMware to Hyper-V represents a significant, multi-year digital transformation of the Salvation Army’s IT infrastructure – one designed to make the estate simpler to manage, more secure and more resilient, while giving staff a faster, more consistent desktop experience wherever they are working.
The impact is best measured in what no longer happens. “Previously desktop issues took up more of our time than they should have,” says Edmonds. “That’s no longer the case. For me, the biggest source of pride is simply having technology that works – not having to keep chasing account managers or escalating issues and knowing our infrastructure is solid, reliable and meets the needs of the organisation.”
Looking ahead
With the VDI migration complete, The Salvation Army is now looking at how it can extend its use of 10ZiG further. The organization is evaluating 10ZiG’s thin client notebooks, which would give staff at life houses – who often need a portable device for use in interview rooms and other spaces without a fixed desk – the same security and simplicity benefits as its desktop thin clients. The Salvation Army is also open to introducing 10ZiG devices into its Denmark Hill headquarters in future, alongside its current hot-desking model.
“We wouldn’t buy any other thin clients now – we’re standardising on 10ZiG,” adds Edmonds. “There’s scope to extend the estate into other parts of the organisation over time. It’s been a strong partnership and one we expect to keep building on.”
“Organisations delivering services at national scale need endpoint technology that is secure, straightforward to manage and can be deployed at scale,” said James Broughton, Sales Director at 10ZiG Technology. “The Salvation Army’s move to AVD, combined with 10ZiG’s thin clients, RepurpOS and 10ZiG Manager, is a great example of how an organisation can modernise its desktop estate at scale, while keeping its focus firmly on the communities it serves.”
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