Building a cloud future

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

• Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
• System Integration

The organization, one of the world’s largest and most effective conservation nonprofits, was planning to consolidate all its applications from an in-house server to Microsoft Azure. It needed to make sure its core fundraising applications built on Adabas & Natural could run on the cloud as well. This would help it continue vital fundraising operations without interruption, as it simplified its IT infrastructure and looked to enable integration of future technologies. The organization has more than 4,300 users accessing applications for fundraising and donor engagement. These staff and volunteers contribute from around the world, so the organization had already modernized its application to enable easy access via the web or a mobile app.

The organization has been conserving wildlife and protecting natural habitats for almost 100 years. It now operates with the support of hundreds of thousands of global members. A large part of its funding is generated by thousands of auctions and volunteer-led events. Large-scale fundraising, retail and advocacy campaigns are one of the most effective ways this organization raises donor funds and connects with millions of supporters. For more than 30 years, Adabas & Natural has provided the backbone of its fundraising capability, delivering reliable performance perfectly suited for the high-volume transactions these global initiatives generate.

The nonprofit chose the fastest way to the cloud: a lift and shift of its Adabas & Natural fundraising applications. Without changing the architecture, the organization moved from Linux to a virtual machine running on the Microsoft Azure hyperscale cloud infrastructure. The lift and shift process was fast and smooth: The nonprofit got the production environment up and running in less than two months. As part of this process, it copied all its existing programs, backed up the databases, and set up the Azure environment. Much of the start-up time was spent testing different configuration options on Azure to determine how to get the greatest value from the range of virtualized systems Microsoft offers. With Microsoft managing the cloud service, the nonprofit's IT staff can focus on enabling new ways to engage with volunteers and donors instead of managing in-house hardware.

• The move to Azure enables them to keep this interface with virtual private network gateways providing secure and encrypted connections.
• The distributed nature of the cloud helps them scale services up or down to match demand whenever and where it spikes, such as during events, auctions or other periods of elevated use.
• The organization has long been a champion of DevOps for the ability to quickly build and deploy new capabilities. Using NaturalONE, an Eclipse-based application development environment, the programming team can integrate Natural with DevOps toolchains and processes to improve application delivery and quality.

• The nonprofit got the production environment up and running in less than two months.
• The nonprofit has experienced zero downtime and has found Adabas & Natural on Azure to be extremely reliable.
• Azure’s disaster recovery service replicates the nonprofit’s system with a hot standby, ready to complete a failover process to a new machine in just minutes.