Kaplan Australia, a division of Kaplan International, provides a broad range of educational offerings, including English language, higher education, vocational, and professional education. With operations spanning multiple business lines, Kaplan serves a diverse student base across Australia.

Before engaging PolarSeven, Kaplan faced several challenges:

  • Outdated IT infrastructure: A mix of aging on-premises systems and outsourced arrangements hindered agility.
  • Complex environment: Rapid growth and acquisitions resulted in duplicated systems, creating inefficiencies in IT operations and management.
  • Scalability issues: Existing service providers struggled to meet the business’s evolving needs for flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency.

Their challenge

Kaplan’s IT infrastructure was nearing the end of its lifecycle, with critical hardware requiring a refresh. The traditional approach of replacing this infrastructure was cost-prohibitive and impractical given the rapid pace of business growth.
Key challenges included:

  • Lack of agility: IT delivery processes could not keep pace with business demands, slowing innovation and operational efficiency.
  • Cost pressures: Upfront capital expenditures for hardware refreshes were unsustainable.
  • Disaster recovery risks: The existing infrastructure made achieving effective disaster recovery costly and complex.

“Our core infrastructure and outsourcing arrangements were holding us back significantly. We needed to take control and ownership of the entire stack to meet the business need.” – Matt White, CTO of Kaplan Australia”

What they needed

To address these challenges, Kaplan required a solution that would:

  • Enable a seamless migration to the cloud with minimal disruption.
  • Provide scalability to support rapid growth and new acquisitions.
  • Incorporate disaster recovery as part of the core architecture.
  • Reduce costs while maintaining high performance.
  • Align with their strategy for DevOps, automation, and lean IT practices.

What we did

PolarSeven partnered with Kaplan to deliver a comprehensive cloud transformation. Key actions included:

  • Cloud migration planning and execution: Kaplan’s IT systems were re-architected and migrated to AWS over nine months.
  • Agile and lean approach: Starting with smaller workloads, PolarSeven iterated and scaled, aligning solutions with Kaplan’s unique needs.
  • Upskilling and enablement: PolarSeven provided AWS training to Kaplan’s internal teams, ensuring a smooth transition and ongoing operational capability.
  • Disaster recovery built-in: AWS’s multi-region architecture enabled Kaplan to achieve disaster recovery goals with minimal investment.
  • Cost optimisation: PolarSeven implemented cost-saving measures through architectural best practices and ongoing AWS cost reductions.

What outcomes they enjoyed as a result

Kaplan experienced significant benefits from this transformation, including:

  • Cost savings: Operating expenses were reduced by 50%, with the capital refresh cycle eliminated entirely.
  • Improved agility: IT became a key enabler of business growth, capable of scaling environments and automating deployments.
  • Simplified disaster recovery: AWS’s built-in capabilities allowed Kaplan to achieve disaster recovery goals cost-effectively.
  • Streamlined IT operations: The move to AWS fostered a DevOps culture, driving efficiency and innovation.

Matt White, CTO of Kaplan Australia, reflected on the success:

“AWS reduced our operating costs significantly and completely removed the capital refresh cycle for core infrastructure. The results exceeded our expectations, and PolarSeven’s expertise played a crucial role in achieving this transformation.”

Client testimonial

“We needed an agile and lean partner who understood our complexities and urgency. PolarSeven balanced all of this very well. Their approach, rooted in collaboration and transparency, was instrumental in our cloud journey’s success.”
— Matt White, CTO, Kaplan Australia

Summary

Kaplan Australia’s migration to AWS, facilitated by PolarSeven, revolutionised its IT operations. By adopting a scalable, agile, and cost-efficient cloud infrastructure, Kaplan is now better positioned to support its growing educational offerings and maintain its leadership in the Australian market.

Contact us

Phone: 1300 659 575
Email: hello@polarseven.com
Address: Level 2/13/15 Wentworth Ave, Sydney NSW 2000
Website: www.polarseven.com