Technology Blog - Redapt

Cloud Migration for NPOs & EDUs: Azure Landing Zone & Microsoft Fabric Workshops

Written by Redapt Marketing | Oct 28, 2026, 6:48:32 PM
Redapt and Microsoft offer a comprehensive suite of on-demand technical workshops tailored for non-profit organizations (NPOs) and educational institutions (EDUs) to accelerate cloud adoption, optimize SQL workloads, and unify data analytics. These deep-dive sessions provide IT leaders, architects, and executives with the blueprints needed to build secure, scalable environments and seamlessly transition legacy systems into the AI era.

Unifying Data Architecture: Microsoft Fabric for NPOs

Expert: Christof von Rabenau, Solutions Architect, Redapt
 
 

This workshop explores how Microsoft Fabric operates as a comprehensive software as a service (SaaS) platform that eliminates underlying infrastructure management
. Organizations learn how to structure their data using a Medallion architecture—separating data into Bronze, Silver, and Gold functional layers within OneLake—to standardize raw information for business-ready dashboards.

Technical Business Outcomes:
  • Accelerated Analytics: Leverage Direct Lake mode to bypass traditional data imports, reducing Power BI refresh times from hours to mere seconds and cutting notebook sizes significantly.
  • AI-Ready Ecosystems: Build custom business ontologies that map organizational terminology so Copilot and Fabric IQ data agents can accurately execute natural language queries against your data.
  • Centralized Governance: Enforce strict data loss prevention (DLP) rules and automated lineage mapping using Microsoft Purview and Entra ID security groups.

Building a Secure Cloud Foundation: Azure Landing Zone for NPOs

Expert: Jacob Edelblute, CISSP, PMP, Practice Lead - Security & Infrastructure, Redapt
 
 

Guided by the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework, this session details how to establish a highly secure Azure Landing Zone using a hub-and-spoke network topology. The workshop focuses heavily on identifying technical dependencies and selecting the proper SQL migration strategies based on compatibility and modernization urgency.

Technical Business Outcomes:
  • Optimized SQL Workloads: Determine the exact migration path required for your databases, comparing the benefits of Lift-and-Shift to Azure VMs, refactoring to Managed Instance, or re-architecting to Azure SQL Database Hyperscale (which supports up to 120 TB).
  • Robust Security Posture: Implement essential perimeter and identity controls, including Azure Key Vault for certificates, Microsoft Defender for Cloud for compliance, and Privileged Identity Management (PIM) for just-in-time administrative access.
  • Financial & Risk Governance: Utilize Azure Policy and resource tagging to strictly enforce cost management and department chargebacks, while establishing resilient Azure Site Recovery protocols for business continuity.

Modernizing Institutional Infrastructure: Azure Landing Zones for EDUs

Expert: Jacob Edelblute, CISSP, PMP, Practice Lead - Security & Infrastructure, Redapt
 
 

Tailored specifically for the educational sector, this workshop provides a strategic blueprint for migrating legacy EDU infrastructure to Azure while bridging the gap between foundational cloud networking and advanced data centralization.

Technical Business Outcomes:
  • Scalable Architecture: Design an institutional hub-and-spoke network that isolates workloads across distinct subscriptions while forcing all traffic through centralized firewalls for deep packet inspection.
  • Future-Proof Data Estates: Upgrade legacy on-premises databases to Azure SQL Hyperscale, supporting up to 128 TB of data and up to 30 named read replicas to handle extensive analytical queries without impacting primary performance.
  • Unified Institutional Insights: Integrate Microsoft Fabric to process student and operational data efficiently, utilizing Direct Lake to cut extensive processing times drastically (e.g., reducing an 11-hour process to just 15 minutes).
Transitioning complex data estates and legacy SQL environments to the cloud requires precise strategy and right-sized architectural planning. Redapt’s cloud experts can help your organization assess its current technical capabilities, define pilot project scopes, and navigate Microsoft funding programs—such as Azure Accelerated and ECIF—which may offset assessment and migration costs based on workload eligibility.

Schedule a one-on-one pilot envisioning session with Christof von Rabenau or Jacob Edelblute to map out your specific infrastructure roadmap today. Are you ready to evaluate your current SQL workloads and data architecture for cloud readiness?