To help non-profit organizations build a robust cloud foundation, Redapt's Jacob Edelblute recently hosted an in-depth workshop detailing Azure Landing Zones, SQL migration strategies, and cloud governance. The strategies discussed serve as a blueprint for modernizing infrastructure securely and efficiently.
Building the Foundation: Azure Landing Zones
A successful cloud migration starts with a well-designed Azure Landing Zone governed by the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework. Azure organizes resources through a management hierarchy that includes management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups, which work together to enforce identity and access controls via Microsoft Entra ID.
The industry standard for network architecture is the hub-and-spoke model. In this design:
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The Hub centralizes core services like the Azure Firewall, VPN or ExpressRoute connections, and identity management.
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The Spokes are isolated subscriptions dedicated to specific workloads, keeping production and non-production environments securely separated while forcing traffic through the hub's firewall for inspection.
Navigating SQL Migration Strategies
When transitioning SQL workloads to the cloud, the right path depends on your application’s compatibility, modernization urgency, and the time available for code changes. The workshop detailed four primary migration avenues:
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Rehost (Lift-and-Shift): Moving SQL Server to Azure Virtual Machines provides a fast, like-for-like migration for legacy applications that cannot be easily altered.
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Refactor: Migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance offers the automated benefits of Platform as a Service (PaaS) while maintaining high compatibility with on-premises SQL configurations.
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Re-architect: Upgrading to Azure SQL Database Hyperscale provides a fully managed, highly scalable database that can grow from 10 GB to 120 TB and supports up to 20 read replicas, making it ideal for future-proofing and modern native apps.
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Azure Arc: For databases that must remain in an on-premises data center, Azure Arc provides unified management and security updates from the cloud.
Governance, Security, and Disaster Recovery
Once in the cloud, strict governance and security guardrails must be established to mitigate risk and control costs.
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Governance and Cost: Azure Policy helps enforce organizational rules, while resource tagging ensures precise tracking for cost management and chargebacks.
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Security: Cloud environments should leverage Azure Key Vault for certificate protection, Microsoft Defender for Cloud for compliance monitoring, and Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for just-in-time administrative access.
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Disaster Recovery: It is crucial to distinguish standard data backups from true disaster recovery. Azure Site Recovery handles full disaster recovery by replicating environments across regional pairs (e.g., East US to West US) to meet specific business Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) requirements.
Schedule a Strategy Call with Redapt
A successful cloud journey begins with understanding your non-profit's goals, assessing your current environment, and building a strong business case for migration.
Redapt can help you define your capabilities and decide whether to start with a pilot program or proceed directly to a full migration. Furthermore, Redapt is highly experienced in navigating Microsoft funding vehicles, such as Azure Accelerated and ESIF, which may help cover the costs of your assessments or migrations based on workload eligibility.