Powering Possibility: How Christchurch City Council Strengthened Its Digital Foundations with cubesys 

A Future-Ready Council Serving Its Community Today

Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the local government authority for Christchurch, New Zealand, serving over 400,000 residents. From infrastructure and planning to public services and sustainability, CCC’s work is deeply embedded in the well-being and future of its communities.

When the opportunity arose to reassess its desktop virtualisation strategy, the Council had a forward-thinking approach, one that would increase flexibility and responsiveness, and at the same time optimise costs.

Exploring Smarter Solutions Through Partnership

As its existing Citrix licensing agreement neared completion, CCC began evaluating alternatives that would better align with its strategic long-term IT and workforce goals.

With cubesys’s reputation for achieving outstanding results for Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop, combined with their Microsoft Advanced Specialisation Certification, cubesys were chosen to assist CCC with their initial Proof of Concept (PoC) in early 2024. As Microsoft Gold Partners, cubesys was able to assist financially by securing funding to support the platform’s build for CCC. The PoC offered hands-on insight into the platform’s capabilities and gave the Council a clear view of how cloud-delivered desktops could support its operations with greater agility and cost control.

As part of the PoC, cubesys introduced CCC to Nerdio Manager for Enterprise as an advanced AVD management layer, demonstrating to the Council team how this tool could be utilised with AVD for simplified operational management and applied realtime optimisation, while retaining full visibility and ownership of the environment.

 Watch How to Build Secure Work Environments with AVD Smart Desktops 

Adopting at Pace, Scaling with Confidence

Following a successful PoC, CCC re-engaged cubesys in early 2025 to implement a full production-ready AVD solution. Successfully deployed across data centres in Australia East and New Zealand, the rollout was completed ahead of schedule to safeguard continuity during any unforeseen operational shifts. The project wasn’t without its challenges—New Zealand’s relatively new data centre introduced added complexity, as the region lacked support for several Azure services. Despite these hurdles, the team delivered a seamless build, reinforcing resilience and future-proofing the environment.

This adaptability was critical. With the new environment in place, CCC was able to support remote access for staff almost immediately, ensuring they could guarantee their workforce access to a secure virtual desktop providing consistent service delivery without delay or disruption.

Furthermore, through cubesys’ Flexi-Hours Managed Service model, the Council now has on-demand access to technical expertise that supports a range of ongoing IT requests and advice, not just for AVD.

“Azure Virtual Desktop has given us a modern, resilient platform we can scale quickly as needs change. cubesys made the deployment straightforward, bringing deep AVD expertise, practical guidance, and a responsive support model that’s continued well beyond golive. Their team worked with us through the complexities of deploying across New Zealand and Australia, and the result is a solution our staff can rely on, and our IT team can manage with confidence.”  

Matt Clarke, Manager Digital Service Operations, Christchurtch City Council 

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Supporting Staff, Strengthening Service

The outcomes of this collaboration are already being felt across Council operations:

• Rapid response to changing workforce needs, with the ability to scale desktops in hours, not days
• Optimised operations, with autoscaling reducing unnecessary compute usage after hours
• With clearer reporting, each department can now see their usage and costs, helping them plan and budget more effectively
• A smoother management experience, allowing the internal team to focus on strategic goals, not backend complexity

These technical outcomes are helping CCC direct more attention and resources to the work that matters most: supporting people, places, and progress across Christchurch.

A Shared Commitment to Long-Term Impact

This engagement is one part of a longer journey. From an initial PoC to full production deployment, CCC’s collaboration with cubesys with support from Microsoft, reflects a shared focus on innovation that serves real community outcomes.

By choosing flexible, scalable infrastructure and a trusted partner to guide implementation, CCC is now better equipped to evolve with its people and deliver more today and into the future, underpinned by a modern digital environment built on trusted technology.

Technology Enablement

cubesys is a Microsoft Solutions Partner and Nerdio Platinum Partner, trusted by enterprise and public sector organisations across Australia and New Zealand. For this engagement, our solution included:

- Microsoft Azure for secure cloud infrastructure

- Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) for flexible access

- Nerdio Manager for Enterprise for automation and cost optimisation

This combination of trusted technology and expert delivery helped Christchurch City Council achieve greater agility, cost transparency, and operational resilience.

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