Case Study: Agenda's Azure Migration Success Story.

Agenda Screening Services, one of the market leaders in Pre-Employment Background Screening, faced a critical challenge when their off-the-shelf pre-employment screening system reached end-of-life.

"We pushed our existing system to the absolute limit," Alexander Foxley, IT Manager at Agenda Screening Services recalls. "We needed additional functionality that simply wasn't available with that product."

After exploring market alternatives and finding nothing suitable, the company made the strategic decision to develop a bespoke solution that could integrate new technologies, scale effortlessly, and potentially become a standalone SaaS offering.

The pivotal question became whether to continue with familiar on-premise infrastructure or embrace cloud technology. Despite uncertainty about cloud expertise, Alexander connected with Cloud9 Security through a clever Star Wars-themed marketing email.

An initial meeting with our CEO, Martin Ferguson, immediately impressed Alexander with his deep knowledge and collaborative approach. "I made it clear from the start that I didn't want to simply hand over the project and have them come back when it was finished. I wanted it to be a learning opportunity for us, where we made decisions together."

In 2024, Agenda committed to a cloud-first approach, reimagining their architecture using Azure's PaaS services rather than simply migrating their VM-based setup. Martin helped shift Alexander's thinking from on-premise paradigms to cloud-native approaches. As Alexander explains, "It changed my mindset from 'that's what I'm used to, that's what I can do' to 'this is what we could do, and this is why it could be better.'"

Security remained paramount throughout the implementation. "We are holding people's personal identities. It's highly sensitive information that needs to be protected and Cloud9 helped us achieve that," notes Alexander.

The completed migration delivered substantial benefits:

• Enhanced scalability: "I no longer have to wait to source and provision infrastructure – within minutes, I can have resources up and running in Azure."
• Improved security: A comprehensive Azure-native encryption and security stack that meets stringent client requirements
• Cost optimisation: Pay-as-you-use compute with auto-scheduling for non-production environments, no upfront hardware costs, and elimination of power/infrastructure expenses. "People forget about things like electricity costs – you've got to build that into your on-premise budget. In Azure, we don't have any of that."
• Knowledge transfer: "My knowledge has expanded exponentially since getting on board with Cloud9 and running this project," Alexander shares.

What began as a single project evolved into an ongoing partnership. Alexander now consults Cloud9 for various initiatives, appreciating their deep expertise, honesty, flexibility, and collaborative approach.

"In my 10 years at Agenda, there are two people I know that if I need anything, they will be there for me. Martin Ferguson is one of them. Even if we hadn't paid, I know Martin would help – we've just got that relationship now."

For organisations considering similar journeys, Alexander's advice is clear: "Don't look at Cloud9 as a small team and think they can't do what you want – they absolutely can. They're passionate about what they do and will go above and beyond to help you and achieve your objectives."