Regeneron elevates global user experience of lab employees, lowers patch management costs with Windows 365

Biotechnology firm Regeneron invents, develops, and commercializes life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases. The company has repeatedly and consistently translated science into medicine—using the power of science to bring new medicines to patients in need. The company's IT strategy includes standardizing a high-quality user experience for laboratory employees across corporate locations. It faced the industry-wide dual challenge of securely managing increasing volumes of scientific data, while maintaining compliance with FDA data handling and storage regulations.  

While addressing the challenge of secure data management, the company also sought to improve the overall user experience of lab technicians using company systems across geographic regions. To provide increased usability for all, Regeneron wanted the benefits of a familiar desktop environment and user interface. Delivered from the cloud, the solution would scale clinical data processing across corporate regions for laboratory users, adding the comprehensive benefits of simplified IT administration, security, and increased data compliance. 

Elevating usability benefits for global users, and meeting FDA data standards 

While Regeneron expected to exceed FDA regulations encompassing data governance, security, and compliance best practices, across the company’s global IT environment, the company's parallel focus was offering its clinical user base a familiar desktop PC experience for laboratory employees—streaming personalized desktop, apps, settings and content with higher overall usability benefits. For laboratory employees pursuing tasks in daily workflows, higher usability would translate to a computing experience offering efficiency, satisfaction, and functionality.  

Regeneron required a solution with an efficient and easy-to-use user interface that supported clinical research workflows on laptops, in closed-off clean room environments.  The comprehensive solution Regeneron envisioned that would meet this requirement appeared simple: to enable users to spin up a desktop as a service (DaaS) instance on a laboratory laptop and stream a familiar desktop PC experience that would be fully managed in the cloud and scale up as needed to handle increasing clinical data volumes. This solution would add simplified IT management, end-to-end security, and comprehensive data compliance capabilities.  

Less overhead management, lower expenditure, and higher productivity with Windows 365 

With overarching requirements in mind for their planned cloud data strategy, Regeneron chose to work closely with Microsoft to securely deploy Windows 365 Cloud PCs and Windows Autopatch in phases moving forward, in company clean room environments. The company was already using Microsoft Intune for endpoint management, and has now incorporated it into a solution they built to completely automate the process of onboarding and offboarding endpoints company wide.  

Working with Microsoft to execute its migration plan, Regeneron first ensured all laboratory clinical data was backed up in OneDrive, migrating the first 2,000 workspaces from a previous solution to Windows 365 in only two months. A period of 30 to 60 days to familiarize users with Windows 365 smoothed this transition and led to a full deployment across the company. Windows 365 Cloud PCs were spun up and data backups were verified before shutting down the old solution. Now, all Cloud PCs are backed up regularly to company tools. Technicians simply log into kiosk mode and stream a familiar Windows 11 user experience. 

Regeneron addressed clean room security, data governance, and usability goals through the deployment of Cloud PCs now used daily by the company’s laboratory technicians, but also engineered and operationalized the automated deployment of secure endpoints.  

First, Regeneron installed shared laptop kiosks in laboratories, then they added Windows 365 and Intune cloud services into the existing enterprise automation tooling and connected them with a ServiceNow instance to automate provisioning of the company’s fleet of Windows 365 Cloud PCs. Technicians submit a ticket, license information is logged, and preinstalled applications interoperate with Microsoft tools. “The provisioning of Cloud PCs is automated, providing a license to an end user. Maintenance is hands-off, with weekly reboots to update endpoint health. We delay updates until that point. It’s been minimal administration versus other solutions,” Humphreys confirms. The machines boot to a browser-like front end, then launch Windows 365 Cloud PCs that stream a familiar Windows 11 experience, complete with personalized apps, content, and settings, delivered by the Microsoft Cloud.   

Regeneron also uses a complementary stack of Microsoft solutions to optimize its Windows 365–based solution. With Microsoft 365 E5 licenses, Regeneron uses Intune to deploy Cloud PCs imaged with Windows 11 Enterprise. According to Matt Humphreys, Senior Director of IT Enterprise Services at Regeneron, “We moved to Windows 11 and deployed Windows 365 Cloud PCs in 2022 to test applications and monitor the end-user experience. Moving to Windows 11 included identifying which machines didn’t support the upgrade. We had a hardware refresh activity as a result.” After a smooth deployment, Regeneron’s entire workforce is now onboarded to Windows 11, benefiting from enhanced user experience, accessibility features, and improved security. 

Simplified IT management with increased efficiency and satisfaction for users, plus cloud-delivered security updates 

Regeneron has successfully reached its strategic milestones of high-volume clinical data management, data compliance, and higher-quality user experience for global laboratory employees. The company has been able to manage progressively larger volumes of scientific data by scaling up Windows 365 resources, while keeping compliant with federal data regulations—and meaningfully elevate the user experience of global laboratory employees. While using company systems on a daily basis, lab technicians are able to log into a familiar Windows 11 interface that’s visually pleasing and easy to use. 

Using Windows 365 with Autopatch, Regeneron has reduced update management overhead, and the company now spends less time managing infrastructure. With Intune to configure Windows 11 updates and policies, the company’s fleet of endpoints receives cloud-enabled security updates with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, and conditional access policies for compliance to help identify non-compliant devices and lower the risk factor for a breach. The company can also grant Windows 365 licenses across specific global regions.  

Autopatch and Intune operate seamlessly to keep Regeneron’s Windows 365 Cloud PCs up-to-date, as Intune provides valuable telemetry on sign-ins, usage, and uptime—and has the capability to reboot machines remotely. The company also moved its iPhone and iPad management to Intune from another platform. Humphrey breaks it down: “When a user has an issue, being able to see network statistics in Intune is powerful. It was the interoperability of Microsoft applications that sealed it. It was the experience.”  

The real-world impact of the Windows 365 implementation has meaningfully elevated the quality of user experience of Regeneron laboratory employees who use company systems in clean rooms every day. Clinicians are able to efficiently sign in to a Cloud PC and stream a familiar, modern Windows 11 desktop interface. They've experienced higher satisfaction with daily work routines, increased usability factors, and their Windows 365 Cloud PCs are automatically refreshed with the latest security, governance, and compliance updates delivered via the Microsoft Cloud.  

With Cloud PCs now securely provisioned via an automated process for licensed users, IT management overhead has significantly decreased. The automated endpoint management ecosystem and shared clean room kiosks with Windows 365 have removed the need for IT staff to service devices. Humphreys adds, “Moving to Windows 365 improved secure access to data and overall usability for technicians. Lab employees now log in to Cloud PCs 24/7, with cloud-managed administration and data governance.” 

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