Case Study

ALA Turns 150 and Goes Cloud-First to Drive Member Benefits

SUMMARY/OVERVIEW

ALA Engaged BDO To Build a Cloud Foundation in Support of the Nonprofit’s Strategic Plan

For an organization to thrive for 150 years, it needs to be built upon a solid foundation. As the American Library Association (ALA) celebrates that remarkable milestone, its mission of “empowering and advocating for libraries and library workers to ensure equitable access to information for all” is as important today as it was in 1876. ALA’s core values haven’t changed, but their technology continues to evolve. While the organization celebrates its 150-year history, they’re also supporting their mission to serve members by using the power of the cloud. They turned to our team of experienced cloud and Microsoft Azure professionals to help lay a new foundation — this time in the cloud.

Key Takeaways

Enhanced resilience and agility by shifting from on-premises workloads to the cloud

Leveraged existing M365 licensing for remote work

Reduced costs by eliminating commercial lease and on-site hardware expenses

A woman in a library.
The Challenge

A Strategic Response to Aging Infrastructure

ALA planned to consolidate an office site that was operating with aging on-premises infrastructure. Recognizing there was an opportunity to enhance its operational capabilities, ALA looked to migrate workloads to the cloud while eliminating the costs of upgrading legacy hardware and extending a commercial lease agreement. The aging infrastructure would also soon pose an operational risk for the organization, including the possibility of unexpected, prolonged downtime. ALA asked our team for assistance in how to best approach the project as their strategic technology guide.

Library image.
The Approach

Driving Agility and Remote Productivity Through Azure Cloud Modernization

We recommended a cloud migration project to move ALA’s on-premises servers into Microsoft’s Azure cloud. This began with our team creating a Landing Zone using Microsoft’s Well-Architected Framework that provided a scalable foundation to migrate workloads and deploy applications. The deployment allowed ALA to decommission its office site’s infrastructure and transition its employees to remote work, leveraging several Microsoft endpoint technologies, including:

  • Windows 11

  • Microsoft Intune

  • Microsoft Teams

  • Entra Global Secure Access (replacing a traditional VPN)

There were also IT infrastructure and development team benefits that came from shifting to the cloud, including streamlined application development through Azure DevOps. The platform allows ALA to significantly improve its development cycle through faster delivery speed, greater agility, powerful coding tools, and innate integration within the Azure environment.

This approach came with employee benefits as well. While the employees’ location changed from an in-office setting to a remote one, the way they interfaced with the applications they used on a daily basis didn’t, meaning there was no additional training needed. We also supported the IT staff through the learning curve of administering the servers in the cloud instead of on-premises to help ensure a holistic, smooth transition. 

A woman in a library.
The Results

Cloud Transformation Drives Mission-Aligned Growth

Migrating to the cloud provided numerous operational benefits to ALA and supported a transition from a capital expenditures (CapEx) model to an operational (OpEx) one. This move increased the organization’s agility while also reducing the overhead costs and risks that inherently come with aging hardware.

Transitioning to the cloud also allowed the organization to move the closed office’s operations into a fully remote environment. This eliminated the cost of the site’s lease agreement and removed the need for traditional on-premises servers or any physical infrastructure. Azure’s cloud environment has provided a flexible, scalable solution for ALA that supports their strategic goals.

As part of BDO’s “Active Insights” service, ALA receives visibility into its cloud spend and software optimization recommendations monthly, such as resizing suggestions, reserved instance options, and unused resource insights. The organization is now in the process of deploying additional member-facing applications to further deliver upon its mission.

Embracing the cloud demonstrates that ALA is taking a forward-thinking approach to serving its members. The nonprofit has embraced its 150-year history and core values of equity and access, intellectual freedom, sustainability, and public good while laying the foundation that allows it to serve their members as it has since 1876.

ALA's migration to Azure is a great example of how nonprofit organizations can use cloud modernization to do more with less. By eliminating aging infrastructure and moving to a scalable cloud foundation, they've freed up resources to focus on what matters most — serving their members. This is what it looks like when technology truly aligns with mission.
Todd Bey
Senior Cyber Advisor, BDO

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