The Castle in the Cloud

Cloud Computing

It has been over a decade since the term “cloud computing” started appearing periodically in conversations about technology. Today the industry consensus is “the future is cloud”, yet many organizations remain leery of the transformative effects of using the Cloud for business, despite its many advantages.

The Castle in the Cloud

The Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society, a small not-for-profit in Victoria, BC, has boldly bucked the general uncertainty and inaction in favour of embracing the Microsoft Business Cloud to run their organization. Their commitment to change makes them one of the earlier adopters in the NFP (Not for Profit) space, and arguably, one of the first (if not the very first) Canadian Castles in the Cloud.

Strong Leadership

The cloud shift occurred under the leadership of their Executive Director, John Hughes. Hughes understood that protecting and preserving a piece of Canada’s heritage does not require working with archaic tools. By embracing the latest, greatest, and newest technology options out there, he has given his team the best tools available to them to solve business problems, make processes more effective, and drive productivity.

The Historical Society

Nonprofit organizations have an unfortunate reputation in Canada for shoestring budgets, limited resources, and worn, outdated infrastructure. The Historical Society is a shining example of a NFP that refuses to be limited by these preconceptions and instead, pushes themselves to stay innovative in an ever-evolving world. Perhaps this attitude is reflective of the Society not relying on Federal or Provincial funding for operations. As an organization with an 100% membership-based model, the need to continuously push to deliver fresh experiences and value to their members is a priority.

Preserving the Past by Planning for the Future

The Historical Society’s Board is clearly not afraid to invest some of their surplus revenues into supporting their staff and wowing their members by utilizing innovative technologies. The Castle treats their guests to enhanced, immersive exhibits utilizing interactive technologies on iPads that bring the Castle’s stories to life. And the Cloud technologies that itgroove assisted the Castle with implementing have enabled staff and volunteers to manage the day-to-day operations of the estate more efficiently, empowering the Leadership Team for proactive and strategic future planning to achieve their mission to protect, restore, and preserve the Castle.

The Castle’s Cloud Journey

When the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Society first became a client of itgroove, their technology infrastructure was 100% on-premise with on-site servers handling their email, file storage, software, and services. Craigdarroch Castle has worked in partnership with itgroove to prepare for and embark on their Cloud journey. Although they are not yet completely cloud, they are sitting comfortably in a Hybrid state, gaining the benefits of both worlds. They continue to work with itgroove to evaluate the legacy line of business applications that anchor them to the ground, to determine when the timing will be right to shift more services.

Learn More…

To read more about how moving to the cloud has positively affected Craigdarroch Castle, you can read about their cloud-based Project Registry Solution Story on the itgroove website.

For a Walkthrough Video and Screenshots, you can check it out the Project Registry the itgroove Gallery.

To see other images from this project shared in our Newsletter, check out our April 2017 video Newsletter or check out past video newsletters to catch up on what we’ve been up to.