Cielo deploys agile, integrated, and secure environment with Azure Virtual Desktop

In search of a new infrastructure to elevate the potential of its environment for vendors, Cielo found a response to its demands in Microsoft tools, streamlining the entire process with security. As a next step, the company works on continuous technology improvement to scale to more users.

Cielo is a leader in the electronic payments segment in Latin America, offering end-to-end solutions that contribute to the sales, finances, and management of nearly 1.1 million active customers.

Improve infrastructure with the cloud

The company faced the challenge of improving infrastructure delivery for vendors using its environment. These include call center teams, developers working on new systems for Cielo, teams supporting the company's infrastructure, and other areas.

Cielo decided to go through a digital transformation that put aside the need to configure machines and VPNs to integrate users into the operation and bring more agility in terms of registration, software enablement, and other tasks, in addition to organizing the profiles of these suppliers, security in the environment, as well as control points for the Cielo team.

"With the migration to the cloud, we could have more agility for equipment delivery because we don't have to wait for a purchase or value analysis, and it has all the security. The process is simplified securely," says Renan Lira, infrastructure Specialist at Cielo.

Virtualized machines supported by Microsoft Azure

Cielo relied on Azure Virtual Desktop as the basis for this new platform, a tool that enables machine virtualization by eliminating the need to configure equipment for new users. Microsoft Defender acts as an antivirus, and all of this is integrated into the Office 365 suite, which brings together various communication and collaboration features used by the company.

"Microsoft's differentiator was to offer a more integrated and simpler technology – which makes management easier. The features of having a homogeneous Microsoft environment are in functionality and security as well," Renan adds.

A new solution that delivers agility, security, and integration

With the new solution, Cielo has reduced the time to access an environment for users from approximately 60 days to a few hours, depending on the use and software that professional needs – users who demand a specific environment or software, specific to a function, enter a flow of approvals that is also automated.

"We have reached a balance to deliver all of this more efficiently, and we can scale very quickly and expand the cloud structure; it's much faster and simpler," explains Leonardo Gomes, Architecture and AVD team coordinator. In addition, the safety framework in the solution also gives Cielo peace of mind to work. "We were very pleased that the platform delivers very well everything we need to implement in AVD and we were able to access Microsoft documentation as well," Leonardo adds.

With the solution in place and working, the next step is focused on trimming some edges and expanding the solution with new functionalities.

"We will scale this environment, we have just over 1,000 users, and the intent for 2023 is to scale to almost 5,000 users. In addition, we will work on continuous improvement of the solution," Leonardo concludes.

“We are very pleased that the platform delivers very well everything we need to implement in AVD and we are able to access Microsoft documentation as well.”

Leonardo Gomes, Architecture and AVD Team Coordinator, Cielo