Overview
United Way Worldwide is a non-profit organization working to raise money for charitable causes, which unites close to 2,000 organizations in around 40 countries. While United Way’s priorities are set by local entities, the global organization generally focuses on helping children achieve their potential, promoting financial stability, and improving access to healthcare. Major recipients of the organization’s contributions include the American Cancer Society, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Catholic Charities, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and The Salvation Army.
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Challenge
United Way was facing challenges related to their Microsoft Azure cloud-based identity and access management system. Their system was being managed by Microsoft Active Directory; a feature of Microsoft Azure that helps ensure only authorized users have access to a client’s cloud resources. United Way wanted to make significant changes to the design, configuration, and implementation of their system. Their end goal was to both modernize their environment and enhance security through implementation of best-in-class identity and access management practices and technologies.
“I am sure we will be in business for a long time. I can count on Ntirety and their people so that we can provide good services for our organization.”
-Johnny Dang, Technology Services Director, Servers and Infrastructures, United Way Worldwide
United Way and Ntirety had an existing relationship dating back 15 years, since a legacy acquisition of one of United Way’s environments. Despite this, United Way only knew Ntirety in a limited capacity as a hosting company. Although they trusted Ntirety’s expertise, they didn’t initially consider Ntirety could offer additional, advanced solutions. United Way was pleasantly surprised to learn Ntirety could bring Active Directory expertise to the table and determined to engage Ntirety in their RFP process. They ultimately selected Ntirety because of this unique differentiator; they could keep everything in-house and running through Ntirety.
Solution
United Way relied on Ntirety’s Advanced Services team to provide a solution, which included consulting as well as education. Ntirety began by conducting an assessment of United Way’s existing system and environment, surfacing issues and asking questions the company wouldn’t have considered otherwise.
Ntirety worked to modernize United Way’s Active Directory environment and move away from their legacy operating system. Ntirety delivered an updated Active Directory schema, and a final configuration which vastly improved security in the cloud environment. The migration project included setting up a controller, which was joined with Active Directory. The new configuration left United Way with a much more secure control plane offering restricted access through a central, tightly controlled space.
“Ntirety not only provided world-class consulting on the project, but also ensured that our needs were being met every step of the way.”
-Johnny Dang, Technology Services Director, Servers and Infrastructures, United Way Worldwide
The most critical piece of the Ntirety solution was the backout plan. United Way needed to modernize but was worried about making the changes safely. With Ntirety’s expertise and deep knowledge of best practices, the changes to the environment were reliable, and the updates done in a way that minimized risk throughout their operations. Ntirety even put a fallback plan in place, which enabled the team to return to a pre-upgrade condition if a problem arose. This allowed United Way to feel confident and facilitated a smooth transition.
The entire solution was supported by a dedicated member of the Ntirety Professional Services team, who was readily available to United Way. He answered any questions, and provided training to clearly illustrate how the modernized environment would work.
Results
United Way selected Ntirety’s Advanced Services team to consult with them on the design, and eventual implementation, of an upgrade to their cloud-based identity and access management features. The direction and knowledge provided by Ntirety allowed United Way to enhance the security posture of their cloud environment. For United Way, it’s now easier to manage and monitor their resources through one central, highly secured area. Their modern system has higher security and performance standards, as well.
“Back in 2022, when we reached out to Ntirety for a project regarding our Active Directory schema, we were a little hesitant: Ntirety is a hosting organization, after all. You would know about SQL, WORDPRESS, PYTHON, and IIS but Active Directory?” “Daniel (Professional Services) changed all our thinking toward Ntirety: we should have reached out to you sooner.”
-Johnny Dang, Technology Services Director, Servers and Infrastructures, United Way Worldwide
United Way was familiar with Ntirety as a hosting company but didn’t realize how many other ways Ntirety could contribute to their success. However, once they began working with the Ntirety team, it became clear that Ntirety was a comprehensive and trusted provider with deep expertise in security, compliance, cloud, and consulting. United Way was “wowed” with Ntirety’s customer service, and appreciated having a dedicated, direct point of contact throughout the engagement. Today, Ntirety continues to support United Way’s cloud infrastructure.
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