Group Elephant in Canada Secures its Workforce with a Centrally Governed Digital Workspace on AWS
Learn how Group Elephant in Canada eliminated endpoint risk, automated security operations, and cut new-employee onboarding to under an hour by moving to a fully managed AWS WorkSpaces environment.
About the Company
Group Elephant in Canada is part of a largely employee-owned Group of companies with a strong global presence, known for addressing complex technology challenges for some of the largest organizations and public sector agencies worldwide. With 42 Canadian-based people, the organization supports enterprise clients across SAP HR solutions and consulting services throughout the Americas.
< 1 Hour
Employee onboarding
Zero
Data breach incidents
Zero
Hardware failures impacting delivery
The Challenge
An unmanaged endpoint environment carrying real risk
With specialists spread across Canada and working directly with enterprise clients, Group Elephant in Canada's workforce relied on a disparate mix of personal devices to perform their daily work. While tools like OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint provided collaboration infrastructure, the underlying endpoints were unmanaged — each consultant operating on their own hardware, with no standardized security controls and no centralized visibility into device health or data activity.
The risks this created were significant. Sensitive client, company, and employee data sat on personal devices with no guarantee of consistent protection. Compliance and audit preparation was entirely manual, requiring significant effort to compile evidence that was difficult to present with confidence. As the organization worked toward ISO 27001 certification, it became clear the existing model could not provide the security posture or the auditability that standard requires.
“Our visibility into our data privacy and security was very rudimentary and was definitely more reactive in nature when potential issues did arise. We wanted to be proactive versus reactive — and Amazon WorkSpaces allowed us that luxury.”
David Visser, Associate Partner, Group Elephant in Canada
The Solution
A centrally governed digital workspace, built for compliance
Group Elephant in Canada worked with EPI-USE Services for AWS to design and deploy a fully managed virtual desktop environment built on AWS WorkSpaces. The goal was clear: move from a reactive, fragmented endpoint model to one that was secure by design, centrally governed, and capable of supporting ISO 27001 compliance.
The implementation was structured in three phases — pilot, leadership rollout, and full employee deployment — allowing proper design, documentation, and support to be established at each stage before progressing. The process was smooth and moved faster than expected, with very few critical issues across any phase.
Key Solution Elements
- Amazon WorkSpaces — every consultant operates from a centrally managed virtual desktop; no data persists on local devices
- Golden-image patching — OS and application updates automated and enforced from a single source
- AWS Directory Service & IAM — enterprise identity integration for secure access from day one
- Amazon CloudWatch — governance dashboards and full audit trail of workspace activity
- EPI-USE managed services — 24/7 monitoring, incident response, proactive vulnerability management, and user lifecycle management
“The goal was to become ISO 27001 compliant, and the switch to a centrally managed cloud-based workspace model paved the way to a foundation and framework that would operationalize privacy, security, and data governance for our business."
David Visser, Associate Partner, Group Elephant in Canada
Outcomes & Benefits
Peace of mind, faster operations, and a foundation built to scale
With every workspace centrally monitored, patched, and governed, Group Elephant in Canada's personnel can focus entirely on delivering value to clients — without the distraction of endpoint management or the anxiety of an upcoming audit.
Onboarding
-
New employees have a fully provisioned, secure workspace ready in under an hour — down from days of coordination
Security & Compliance
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Zero data breach incidents since go-live
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Full audit trail of workspace activity and governance dashboards supporting ISO 27001 readiness
Reliability
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Zero hardware failures impacting delivery
Cost Efficiency
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Projected savings of $1,200–$1,400 CAD per employee per year as individual laptop allowances are phased out over the next 6–12 months
“EPI-USE Services for AWS is a true partner and has helped unlock efficiencies, placed our infrastructure on a secure and private managed platform — and in the long run, year over year, will save the company between $1,200 and $1,400 Canadian dollars per year per employee.”
About EPI-USE Services for AWS
EPI-USE Services for AWS is an enterprise cloud expert and AWS Premier Partner with deep roots in SAP and ERP, serving enterprises running mission-critical workloads on AWS and tech-intensive SaaS companies. As part of Group Elephant, a global technology group of 4,200+ professionals across 42 countries, we bring 42+ years of enterprise technology experience to every engagement.
We hold AWS competencies across AI Services, SAP, Migration and Modernization, MSP, and Microsoft Workloads, carry 162+ AWS certifications, and serve 170+ clients globally through a validated AWS Managed Service Provider practice with 24/7 engineer support. From cloud migration to autonomous AI agents on Amazon Bedrock, we deliver Cloud Intelligence to enterprises running mission-critical workloads on AWS.
