High Availability Deployment of ADFS Infrastructure with Hybrid Connectivity & DMZ Setup for a Non-profit Tech Company

The client is an American non-profit technology organization which has been responsible for the production of several children’s educational programs.

To address the client’s challenges with data management, collaboration, and the lack of a disaster recovery plan, SNP Technologies helped the client transition to Azure Cloud Services, implementing a comprehensive disaster recovery solution. This migration not only solved the issues related to on-premises infrastructure costs but also ensured improved data availability and security across their global operations.

SNP Technologies worked closely with the client to thoroughly assess their existing on-premises infrastructure, identify requirements, and formulate a detailed migration strategy to seamlessly transition their workloads to Azure. The migration was executed with a Hybrid Cloud strategy, ensuring that the client could leverage the benefits of both on-premises and cloud environments while maintaining high performance and availability.

After migrating to Azure, the client experienced significant improvements across various aspects of their IT infrastructure, with a notable impact on both performance and cost-efficiency. The migration helped the client streamline their operations and IT services across multiple countries and regions.

Below are the key outcomes of the migration:

• Optimized Cloud Resources: With Azure, the client benefited from high-performance virtual machines (VMs), load balancing, and auto-scaling, ensuring that their applications and workloads performed better with enhanced reliability. Azure’s global network of data centers allowed them to place their workloads closer to their end-users, reducing latency and improving user experience across regions.
• Faster Deployment and Innovation: The client experienced faster deployment of new applications and services using Azure DevOps, which streamlined their continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. This enabled quicker response times to market demands and innovation cycles, significantly boosting overall IT service delivery.
• Global Collaboration: Azure’s collaboration tools, integrated with Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory, facilitated smoother communication between geographically dispersed teams and regions, enhancing the efficiency of cross-functional teams and business units.
• Pay-as-You-Go Pricing: By migrating to Azure, the client took advantage of Azure’s pay-as-you-go model, which helped reduce the capital expenses associated with maintaining on-premises infrastructure. They could scale their infrastructure according to demand, ensuring they only paid for what they used, which led to better resource optimization and cost control.
• Reduced Operational Costs: With Azure managing the infrastructure, the client eliminated the ongoing costs of maintaining physical data centers, including power, cooling, hardware upgrades, and data center staff. This allowed them to reallocate their resources to other strategic initiatives, improving overall cost efficiency.
• Disaster Recovery Savings: By implementing Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery, the client no longer had to invest in expensive disaster recovery solutions or duplicate infrastructure on-premises. The cloud-based DR solution provided cost-effective, scalable protection without the need for additional hardware.
• Centralized Management: Azure’s centralized management tools allowed the client to efficiently manage their global infrastructure from a single pane of glass. Azure Azure Arc enabled them to manage both their on-premises and cloud resources seamlessly, ensuring consistency in governance, security policies, and compliance across regions.
• Better Coordination Across Regions: With Azure’s global presence, the client was able to streamline operations across their different regions and countries. Azure’s regional availability zones and cross-region replication ensured that data and services were consistently available and synchronized across all locations.
• Integrated Disaster Recovery: The hybrid solution with Azure Site Recovery ensured that their workloads could fail over to a secure, replicated environment in Azure, providing seamless business continuity. This capability ensured minimal downtime during outages and helped maintain service reliability across all regions.
• Elastic Scaling: The client now has the flexibility to scale their IT infrastructure up or down according to demand, thanks to Azure's elastic scaling capabilities. Whether experiencing a sudden surge in traffic or needing to reduce resources during off-peak times, Azure allows the client to dynamically adjust without the risk of over- or under-provisioning.
• Robust Security Tools: With Azure Security Center, Azure Sentinel, and Azure Active Directory, the client enhanced their security posture. These tools provided visibility into potential vulnerabilities, monitored for threats, and enforced security policies across their cloud and on-premises resources.
• Compliance and Governance: Azure enabled the client to maintain strict compliance with industry standards and regulatory requirements, ensuring that all their data and applications met necessary data protection and governance standards across their global operations.

By migrating to Azure, the client successfully transformed their IT infrastructure, achieving both cost savings and significant improvements in performance. The migration allowed them to streamline operations across regions, improve global collaboration, and deliver IT services more efficiently. Furthermore, they now have a scalable, secure, and cost-effective solution that supports future growth and enables them to better meet the demands of their customers worldwide.