Portal Modernization on Azure

The Situation

A background screening and verification platform serving enterprise HR and staffing clients was facing a compound infrastructure problem: legacy on-prem database clusters were generating escalating costs with no path to elastic scaling, the candidate-facing verification portal was causing high drop-off rates on mobile and low-bandwidth connections, and the absence of centralized SSO was creating friction for enterprise clients managing large screening volumes. On top of this, data security measures fell short of the PII compliance obligations inherent to a background screening business. The platform needed a modern foundation — not incremental patches, which is why Sails Software undertook a full Portal Modernization on Azure engagement.

Infrastructure costs were rising without performance improving. The business was paying more for the same — or worse — delivery while candidates were abandoning verification workflows at the point of completion.

Industry

HR Technology & Background Screening — serving enterprise HR functions and staffing organizations with candidate verification, identity screening, and compliance workflows.

Regulatory Environment

Identity governance, PII protection, and data security obligations require secure, audit-ready access controls and platform availability commitments that legacy infrastructure could not guarantee.

Strategic Need

• Reduce escalating on-prem infrastructure costs without sacrificing platform capability
• Rebuild the candidate portal to reduce verification form drop-off
• Centralize identity governance with enterprise-grade single sign-on
• Establish data security controls and PII compliance fit for a screening platform
• Maintain 99.9%+ availability during peak screening periods
• Create a scalable foundation for future feature development

Key Challenges

• Escalating on-prem infrastructure costs on rigid, inflexible legacy clusters
• Candidate drop-off caused by unresponsive, slow verification forms
• Absence of centralized single sign-on (SSO) across the platform estate
• Lack of data security measures and PII compliance controls
• No elastic scaling capability to handle peak screening demand
• Legacy stack blocking future feature delivery velocity

Azure Cloud & SQL Managed Instance Migration

• Migrated from on-prem legacy clusters to Azure cloud infrastructure and Azure SQL Managed Instance
• 20–40% absolute reduction in infrastructure spend realised post-migration
• Elastic scaling capability unlocked for peak demand handling
• Built-in high availability and automated backup replacing manual operational burden

.NET 8 & Blazor Portal Rebuild

• Re-architected candidate portal with .NET 8 and Blazor for responsive, high-performance UX
• Verification forms redesigned for mobile-first, low-bandwidth completion
• Significantly reduced candidate drop-off metrics post-launch
• Component architecture enabling rapid future feature iteration

Azure SSO for Enterprise Identity

• Deployed enterprise Azure SSO for centralized, ironclad identity governance
• Single authentication layer across all enterprise client access points
• Audit-ready access logging and role-based permission controls
• Eliminated per-client identity management overhead

Intune & Vanta for Endpoint Management & Compliance

• Implemented Microsoft Intune for unified endpoint management across the estate
• Deployed Vanta for continuous compliance monitoring and PII audit readiness
• Closed the data security gaps that legacy infrastructure could not address
• Simplified IT operations through centralized device and policy management

Datadog Observability Platform

Technology Stack.NET 8

BlazorAzure SQL Managed Instance

Azure SSOMicrosoft Intune

VantaDatadog

• Implemented Datadog for real-time platform monitoring and alerting
• 99.9% platform availability maintained and evidenced under peak screening loads
• Proactive incident detection replacing reactive support escalations
• SLA compliance reporting available on demand for enterprise client commitments

Infrastructure Audit & Migration Planning

This Portal Modernization on Azure phase mapped the full on-prem legacy estate — identifying cost drivers, availability risks, security gaps, and migration dependencies before committing to a migration sequence.

Data Layer Migration

Executed the Azure SQL Managed Instance migration with zero data loss and minimal downtime — establishing the scalable, cost-efficient data foundation for the modernized platform.

Portal Rebuild, SSO & Security Implementation

Re-architected the candidate portal on .NET 8 and Blazor, deployed Azure SSO, and rolled out Microsoft Intune and Vanta — delivering responsive UX, centralized identity governance, and an audit-ready compliance posture.

Observability & Validation

Deployed Datadog across the full platform stack — establishing the monitoring baseline that confirmed 99.9% availability and provided the evidence base for enterprise SLA commitments.

20–40%Cost Reduction

99.9%Availability

LowerCandidate Drop-off

20–40% Absolute Reduction in Infrastructure Spend

Migrating from rigid on-prem legacy database clusters to Azure cloud infrastructure and Azure SQL Managed Instance eliminated the fixed-cost overhead of maintaining inflexible infrastructure — delivering a 20–40% absolute reduction in infrastructure spend while simultaneously improving reliability and scaling capability.

99.9% Platform Availability Under Peak Screening Loads

The modernized Azure-hosted platform, monitored via Datadog, maintained 99.9% availability across peak demand periods — replacing the instability and manual operational burden of the legacy stack with a reliable, observable foundation.

Candidate Drop-off Significantly Reduced

The rebuilt candidate portal — responsive, mobile-optimized, and re-engineered for low-bandwidth environments — significantly reduced candidate abandonment at the verification completion stage, improving throughput for enterprise clients.

Centralized Enterprise Identity Governance

Azure SSO deployment centralized identity governance across the entire platform estate — eliminating per-client authentication complexity and providing the audit-ready access control that enterprise HR clients require.

Improved Security and Simplified IT Operations

Microsoft Intune brought every endpoint under unified management while Vanta established continuous compliance monitoring — closing the PII and data security gaps of the legacy environment and reducing the day-to-day operational burden on the IT team.

Security posture strengthened · IT operations simplified