CASE STUDY
Noosa Shire Council’s Cloud Transition Improves Agility and Reliability
OVERVIEW
Noosa Shire Council is a Southeast Queensland local government organisation delivering essential community services and digital operations across the region. Following de‑amalgamation from Sunshine Coast Council in 2014, the Council adopted a mix of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with minimal on‑premises infrastructure.
As the region grew, demand placed increasing pressure on storage, performance, and disaster recovery systems. The existing setup was no longer agile enough to support emerging operational needs, including large, unplanned data workloads and real time video capture for stormwater and road inspections.
Case study approved by Noosa Shire Council for work conducted in 2019.
CHALLENGES
Growth across the region created new digital requirements that the Council’s environment struggled to support.
Storage limitations, performance issues, and concerns about backup and disaster recovery introduced operational risk and reduced confidence in the existing systems.
The Council also faced challenges working with previous IT providers. Systems became disjointed, responsibilities were unclear, and the team had limited visibility into how data was being stored or protected. Managing multiple vendors made it harder to respond quickly to new requirements.
The Council needed a structured, reliable cloud solution that could scale quickly, reduce downtime, and eliminate data loss risk.
“When Noosa Shire Council was re‑established, the leadership team knew it needed to focus on obtaining IT as a service… we weren’t agile enough with emerging, temporary or unusual requirements.”
“For example, we need to capture video data of storm water pipes and roads in real time… If someone handed over a terabyte of video, we’d need space for that data immediately.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
SOLUTIONS
A Supported Transition to Microsoft Azure
To explore a broader move to Azure, the Council engaged their Microsoft account manager. Through the Microsoft FastTrack program, Codify was selected to deliver a complete backup and disaster recovery solution.
Codify worked closely with Noosa Shire Council over a 10 day engagement to implement Azure Backup, configure restores, validate server recovery processes, and ensure the environment was set up correctly. Training and handover were central to the engagement, enabling the Council’s team to manage and test backups independently.
“Codify set up all our Azure backups and restores, tested server recoveries and then showed us how to perform these tests ourselves… The level of training was invaluable.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
Migration of Existing Workloads
Codify also migrated the Council’s existing AWS workloads into Azure. Consolidating systems onto a single cloud platform reduced vendor complexity, improved visibility, and strengthened the Council’s ability to manage performance and recovery from one central environment.
RESULTS
The transition to Azure delivered significant improvements in agility, reliability, and operational confidence across Noosa Shire Council.
Improved Staff Experience
Faster sync times, better performance, and more reliable recovery processes had a positive impact on staff morale.
“Staff are enthusiastic! They have seen how powerful it is.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
Better Support for Community Services
Critical community facilities, particularly those operating outside business hours, benefited from improved reliability and a stronger backup and recovery process.
“When our systems failed outside business hours, it greatly impacted transactions… We now have a superior backup and recovery process in place.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
Faster Recovery
Recovery times dropped from hours to minutes, allowing the Council to maintain service continuity.
“Now we can get things back so quickly, it literally takes minutes.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
Greater Visibility and Control
Training empowered the internal team to test backups, validate restores, and respond quickly to requests.
“We can test it ourselves… we now have confidence that the systems will be available and easily recoverable.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
Seamless Upgrades
Upgrades became smooth and disruption‑free, with the ability to roll back instantly if required.
“When we upgrade, we can now roll back to a previous version… The work is invisible and goes completely unnoticed.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
Practical Advice from the Council’s Experience
The Council emphasised the importance of working with a partner who understands the challenges and can guide the organisation through change.
“Working with an external party, like Codify, who are the experts in the challenges your business are facing is so important… They can set up things more quickly and use learnings from other customers.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council
They also highlighted the mindset shift required when moving from on‑premises to cloud environments.
“If you currently run things in‑house, you’ll just try to rebuild what you have in house, but in the cloud… In reality, you must change the way you deliver the service and bring your whole team along for the ride.”
Justin Thomas, ICT Manager, Noosa Council