Unifying Azure Operations and Security for a National Education Research Nonprofit

A national nonprofit that conducts education research and delivers technical assistance to school systems across the country runs its core technology on Azure. Its identity platform, email, and security tooling had each been chosen separately over time — one vendor for access, another for mail, and point tools for security — leaving a small IT team maintaining integrations rather than services. Working with Redapt, the organization moved that estate onto a single Microsoft-centered platform and a single operating relationship.

Turning Challenges Into Opportunities

From Managing Vendors to Running Services

For a research organization, technology spend is measured against program dollars. Every hour the IT team spent reconciling two identity systems or chasing an integration between platforms was an hour not spent supporting the researchers and school partners the organization exists to serve.

Mission-driven organizations rarely have the headcount to run six specialist disciplines well. The constraint is not budget alone — it is attention. Consolidation earns its keep when it returns attention to the mission, and fails when it only relocates the dependency.

The Problem

The organization ran access management on one identity platform while its productivity stack moved toward Microsoft, forcing a small IT team to maintain integrations between two systems never designed to work together. Email sat elsewhere again. Security testing happened on an ad hoc basis, with no recurring baseline to measure improvement against. The team was absorbing the coordination costs of assembling an estate one decision at a time and needed to reduce that surface area without handing away control.

The Solution

Redapt sequenced the work rather than proposing a single consolidation program. Identity moved first, because access underpins everything downstream; email followed once identity was stable. Each migration was scoped as its own engagement under its own signed statement of work, so the organization could evaluate results before authorizing the next step. Scope changes were handled through formal change requests in flight, rather than forcing the original plan through unchanged.

The Outcome

The nonprofit now runs identity, email, cloud licensing, and day-to-day Azure operations through a single operating relationship, with its own team holding administrative control over the environment. Security assessment and penetration testing run on a recurring annual cycle instead of as isolated projects, giving the organization a baseline it can measure against year over year. A new scope has been added inside the existing relationship rather than through a separate vendor evaluation each time.

SOLUTION DEEP DIVE

Sequenced Consolidation Across Identity, Mail, and Security

Redapt delivered the consolidation as a sequence of independently scoped engagements, each authorized on the results of the one before it.

Identity Platform Migration

Migrated identity and access management onto Microsoft Entra ID under a statement of work signed in October 2025
Sequenced identity ahead of all downstream work, so productivity and security changes resolved against one authoritative access layer
Handled two mid-engagement scope adjustments through formal change requests rather than reopening the original agreement
Aligned the target identity design to the organization’s existing Azure tenant instead of standing up a parallel environment

Productivity Platform Consolidation

Migrated organizational email to Microsoft Outlook after the identity work was complete and stable
Ordered the mail migration after identity, so user access and mailbox provisioning resolved against a single directory
Retired the cross-platform integration work that the previous split-stack arrangement had required

Recurring Security Assessment Program

Established security assessment and penetration testing as a three-year recurring engagement under a statement of work dated November 2025, rather than a single point-in-time review
Completed the first, second, and third annual cycles on schedule across 2025 and 2026
Structured each cycle to measure against the prior year’s findings, producing a year-over-year baseline instead of an isolated snapshot

Ongoing Cloud Operations and Licensing

Assumed day-to-day Azure operations under a managed services engagement renewed each quarter
Consolidated Azure consumption and licensing into the same relationship through Redapt’s Cloud Solution Provider agreement
Extended coverage into secure web access under a three-year platform agreement, scoped inside the existing engagement rather than as a separate vendor evaluation

Partnership Page

THE OUTCOMES

Consolidated Estate, Retained Control

The organization operates a single Microsoft-centered platform under one relationship that now spans cloud operations, identity, security testing, and licensing.

Single Operating Relationship

Cloud operations, identity, security testing, and licensing now run through one engagement rather than separate contracts.

Recurring Security Baseline

An annual assessment and pentest cycle replaced ad hoc reviews, producing year-over-year measurements rather than isolated snapshots.

Retained Administrative Control

The internal IT team holds administrative ownership of the environment Redapt operates day to day.

Expansion Without Re-procurement

A new scope was added inside the existing relationship, with no separate vendor evaluation for each addition.

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CONCLUSION

Room to Focus on the Mission

Six specialist areas now run through one relationship, and the organization’s own team still holds the keys. If you have watched a managed services vendor quietly absorb your team’s depth along with its workload, that is the risk worth naming before you sign. Talk to Redapt’s Managed Cloud Services team about an engagement in which the runbooks, dashboards, and administrative controls stay yours.

PRIVACY / CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT

Your trust and confidentiality are our top priorities. Redapt prioritizes and protects our customers’ privacy, so we don’t publicly disclose account names or other identifiable information. We are eager to share our successes and are happy to provide specific referrals or case studies upon request.

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