Diligent Global’s Zero-Downtime Migration to Microsoft Azure for a Leading Nonprofit
Client Background :
The organisation serves 50 counties across west Georgia and east Alabama, operating retail thrift stores that fund vital community programs — including job training, GED preparation, and veteran support services.
With operations spread over multiple regions, they rely heavily on technology to keep programs running seamlessly. What they needed was an IT environment as strong and connected as the communities they serve.
We knew our role wasn’t just about moving workloads; it was to deliver a cloud environment as unified and purpose-driven as the mission it supports.
Challenges:
Understanding the Roadblocks
Through discovery sessions and technical assessments, the challenges came into sharper focus:
Fragmented Operations
Two clouds meant two sets of management consoles, configurations, and processes. Silos made it harder to act quickly or make changes organisation-wide.
Security and Compliance Pressure
Each platform demanded separate controls, audits, and monitoring, multiplying effort and increasing risk.
Integration Limitations
Their enterprise systems and retail solution thrived on Azure’s native services, but coexisting with AWS-based workloads forced workarounds.
No Room for Downtime
Any outage could disrupt retail sales, donor engagement, or training programs. Migration had to be seamless, with production workloads protected at every stage
This wasn’t a “lift and shift” scenario. It demanded a thoughtful, phased approach that would remove complexity without compromising security or uptime.
Crafting the Migration Plan
From the start, we made this a collaborative journey with the leadership and IT teams. Our strategy centred on five guiding principles:
Commit to a Single Cloud: Together, we agreed Azure would be the home for all current and future workloads — a strategic move to remove operational drag.
Map Every Dependency: We carried out a full inventory of AWS workloads, tracing interconnections and data flows to avoid overlooked dependencies during migration.
Phase the Move: Low-risk systems went first, giving us room to refine and test the process before touching mission-critical workloads.
Automate for Consistency: Using Terraform and Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, we recreated environments in Azure with built-in governance, security, and standardization.
Test Beyond the Basics: We didn’t just validate applications; we ran business continuity drills, simulated rollbacks, and proved the recovery plan could work if needed.
Executing Without Disruption
Making the Move – Without Missing a Beat
Each migration phase became a story of preparation paying off. Azure-native security tools like Key Vault and Microsoft Entra ID locked down access and protected data. Azure Policy and Blueprints enforced compliance automatically across the environment.
The retail solution, now living entirely in Azure, integrated seamlessly with Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and analytics tools like Power BI. The IT team could manage everything from one dashboard, track costs in real time, and spot performance issues before they impacted operations.
We remained embedded with their team, sharing documentation, transferring knowledge, and ensuring they could operate and grow the new Azure environment independently.
What We Achieved Together
This migration wasn’t just completed; it reshaped how the organisation operates, secures, and scales in the cloud.
Achieved zero downtime
during migration, maintaining uninterrupted retail, donor, and community service operations
Consolidated all workloads
into Azure, enabling faster decisions and eliminating multi-cloud management overhead
Strengthened security
with centralised monitoring, enforced compliance, and streamlined identity access controls
Improved application performance
and scalability through full adoption of Azure-native capabilities.
Reduced operational costs
by removing AWS licensing, duplicate training, and overlapping support expenses
Established an enterprise-grade Azure
Landing Zone for rapid, secure deployment of future workloads.
Looking Ahead
Today, this nonprofit operates on a cloud platform built to support its mission for years ahead. It can roll out new services, adapt to demand, and do so while maintaining strong security and governance.
For us at Diligent Global, this project reaffirmed what we believe: cloud transformation is more than a technical milestone, it’s a driver of strategic and mission impact. By working in close partnership, we created a platform that frees their teams to focus on what matters most — helping people build better futures.