Ted Noffs Foundation: The AWS solution enabling support for disadvantaged young Australians
Ted Noffs Foundation (Noffs)
Noffs is a not-for-profit charity that provides services to socially disadvantaged and disconnected young people, Indigenous communities, as well as those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The foundation has 11 locations Australia-wide and strives to forge new ways of engaging with young people and their communities, improving social inclusion in Australia.
Key benefits
- Ongoing flexibility through Enhanced AWS Managed Tenant
- Boosted operational resilience and enhanced security
- A stable foundation for an on-demand environment enabling innovation with AWS
An aging infrastructure limiting innovation
A ‘people first, business second’ approach has enabled the small team of staff and volunteers at Ted Noffs Foundation to provide 24-hour support to disadvantaged and disconnected young adults for over 20 years, all while being reliant on both aging, on-premises servers, and manual backups.
Aging technology
With servers running out of their head office, maintaining Noffs’ aging technology was exposing them to security risks, as well as occupying valuable time and resources.
Mark Ferry, COO of Ted Noffs Foundation shared, “We run a small but effective team of 135 staff and 200 volunteers. They’re reliant on the seamless operation of our IT resources to provide continuous, trustworthy, 24-hour support to young people across diverse locations”.
Protecting sensitive data
Noffs holds more than 20 years of sensitive data belonging to young people who use its essential services. One of their main priorities was to ensure that they were using the smartest technology available to protect this information. This meant moving away from servers that were reliant on manual backups.
Reimagining operations
With COVID-19 lockdowns impacting their ability to connect with young people, Noffs needed to look towards a more sustainable, digital-ready way of operating. It was clear that their existing IT infrastructure was standing in the way of any future innovation. Not only were they unable to move forward, but the increased risk of a server outage and potential data loss had the ability to set them back even further.
A future fit solution
Ted Noffs Foundation wanted to migrate their workloads from an on-premises environment to a secure Public Cloud Managed platform.
Interactive proposed an Enhanced AWS Managed Tenant, which would offer Noffs the flexibility to control their cloud costs by scaling services up or down, as well as boost operational resilience and enhance security. The transition to AWS would also drive OPEX benefits, which is invaluable to a not-for-profit organisation like Noffs.
“With Interactive’s help we’re now able to control any unnecessary spending and redirect it towards our services and young people, where it’s truly needed” - Mark Ferry, COO of Noffs
Additionally, migrating to AWS would offer a stable foundation for an on-demand environment, enabling experimentation and innovation, with near-infinite resources to support new initiatives. As Noffs were looking to engage a third party to develop a new application, AWS offered a foundational dynamic environment to deploy the application, along with features to auto scale, auto heal, and provide high availability. With multiple application tiers running across a combination of Auto Scaling Groups and Elastic Container Services, Interactive’s solution offered Noffs endless opportunities for future application integration.
Enabled by technology, focused on people
When choosing a partner, Noffs had certain attributes that were front of mind before technology expertise. It was important to Noffs that their future partner understands their ‘people first, business second’ approach to their work.
Mark said, “For us, everything is about the young people – business will always come second to what we do. That was never something we had to explain to Interactive. They are a likeminded, socially conscious company who were interested in what we do and why we do it.”
After close collaboration, Interactive demonstrated a deep understanding of the Ted Noffs organisation, including their culture and aspirations. This lay the foundation for a strong partnership, empowering Noffs to focus on their business without having to worry about IT issues, security, maintenance, or accessibility.
Mark concluded, “Interactive’s ability to recognise our unique challenges allowed them to develop an equally unique AWS solution for us, creating lasting value for our organisation.”
