CAFOD
CAFOD Migrate To Azure To Save Costs And Improve IT Efficiency
About CAFOD
CAFOD (Catholic Agency For Overseas Development) are a global charity that work in conjunction with local Catholic Churches to bring aid into poverty stricken regions in places such as Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. CAFOD work with over 160 different organisations across the world to achieve their aims. Founded in 1960, CAFOD has grown into a global charity with a Turnover exceeding £50 Million and in excess of 2400 volunteers alongside 450 employed staff.
The Problem
As CAFOD has continued to develop and grow as a global organisation, so too has its requirement and dependency for an agile and cost-effective IT platform to enable collaboration with its many global locations. CAFOD were looking to find more cost-effective disaster recovery as their current solution was ineffective with a high cost associated in addition to providing limitations with recovery rehearsals. The business had identified that the current DR solution was not in line with the future goals in respect to their BCDR plan. The existing DR solution also inhibited CAFOD’s ability to migrate workloads onto one unified platform.
The Solution
Paul Hayward (IT Infrastructure Manager) is responsible for the ongoing management and development of CAFOD’s IT Systems and has overseen IT in the organisation for 21 years. Paul met with think S3 to discuss DR solutions. Upon conclusion it was outlined that the power of Microsoft Azure and a Hybrid cloud model would release the resource pressure from Paul’s IT team, provide a sustainable cost model and achieve increased IT service and disaster recovery performance.
After the initial meeting with Paul Hayward, think S3 provided CAFOD with a Cloud Readiness Workshop. Within the workshop Paul and his IT team had the ability to identify how his business needs and technology requirements had the ability to be aligned under a flexible, centralised, cost effective platform. As part of the workshop a migration plan and a proof of concept followed, showing a clear path towards adopting Microsoft Azure and minimising risk to the business.
The proof of concept centred on the backup and authentication issues that CAFOD had been experiencing and utilised Microsoft Azure Site Recovery (ASR), Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), IaaS production servers and Azure management tools. Following the proof of concept, CAFOD could clearly see how using Microsoft Azure supported by think S3, offered a flexible model that could deliver IT services across the organisation.
After this process, CAFOD were able to roll out real world solutions in Microsoft Azure that were:
- Easier to administer
- Met the business needs
- Provided clear and predictable billing
- A more cost effective Backup & DR solution
- A more simplified user experience
- Provided customisable recovery plans
- Delivered orchestrated recovery on-demand
“Having a wide ranging workshop where we could discuss all aspects of the services provided by Azure, with an expert partner like S3 was invaluable. Furthermore the opportunity of a full Proof of Concept before committing to any change or purchase made it an easy decision to go ahead and embrace Azure Cloud technology services”.
Paul Hayward – IT Infrastructure Manager CAFOD
The Next Steps
Following the successful deployment of Microsoft Azure throughout this process, CAFOD have been able to migrate existing workloads to the Azure cloud and remove the costs of associated hardware and 3rd party external suppliers. The Azure platform is also enabling more predictable cost planning based on consumption against compute costs, all forecasted and managed via think S3’s billing model.
Since CAFOD have been able to see the art of the possible in Azure, further developments of their hybrid strategy are now underway as they use their advanced awareness of the powerful capabilities of Azure to plan their future.
