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January 27, 2023

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission uses Microsoft Azure to preserve the state for future generations

In 2019, the Florida state legislature passed HB-5301, also known as the “cloud bill,” mandating that state agencies migrate from on-premises data centers to the cloud for their network infrastructure and telecom communication needs. This meant that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) would need to find a cloud partner that could help them modernize while also meeting the information technology needs of an important state entity. With Microsoft Azure providing a platform that enabled them to build scalable websites and web workloads, and drive innovation for existing and future apps, as well as being Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS)-compliant, Microsoft was the right choice.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

“Microsoft really worked with us as a partner and helped us through all the roadblocks, the decision-making processes, and what we needed to do to get migrated from the data center to the cloud.”

Glenda Atkinson, Chief Information Officer, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Fish out of water

With over 65,757 square miles to protect—including 825 miles of coastland—the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a lot of ground to cover. Florida is known as the “fishing capital of the world,” and for good reason. Florida is the state with the largest recreational harvest—167 million fish weighing 127.6 million pounds—and has freshwater fisheries that comprise more than 7,500 lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, and approximately 12,000 miles of fishable rivers, streams, and canals. This doesn’t even take into consideration the 825 miles of coastland.

With so much ground to cover, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission keeps a roster of 3,400 employees, over 1,000 law-enforcement officers, and a large cadre of volunteers. Their mission is to manage fish and wildlife across the state—both to conserve and to provide fishing and hunting opportunities for residents and tourists that visit from all over the world.

“When the cloud bill passed, we had to research the different cloud providers to see who would provide us the services that we need,” says Glenda Atkinson, Chief Information Officer of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They needed a partner that could provide better redundancy, disaster recovery opportunities, security, and resource availability. “This was a newer technology for us, so we would need a cloud-solution provider who could help us get trained and find the right resources to migrate from on-premises to the cloud.”

FWC catches the right solution

After doing some initial research, Atkinson notes confidently that there was only one clear option. “The choice for us was Microsoft, primarily based on the fact that at the time they were the only Florida state approved CJIS-compliant cloud provider. Our largest division is law enforcement. We have CJIS data, and we had to have a way to protect it. Microsoft was the answer.”

Once the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission selected Azure, Microsoft did an assessment of their data center to see what resources they had on premises, so they’d know what they had to move. Knowing that they would need assistance with the migration, Microsoft guided them toward the Azure Migration and Modernization Program (AMMP) and provided a Gold Certified Partner—AirNet—to help with the migration. “They were integral to our success,” says Atkinson. “They not only brought in a project manager, they tracked milestones and scheduled regular meetings on the cadence that we needed. They also supported [us] by helping us plan and brought in subject matter experts when needed.”

Now that they’re 100 percent migrated, they can look at how and why they want to modernize. “When we're thinking about modernizing tools and building applications, the number one thing I worry about is security,” says Atkinson. “The number two thing that I worry about are hurricanes. Our hurricane season is six months. We have had some horrific storms. With our migration and modernization in Azure, we're able to respond and support our law enforcement officers and biologists.”

Atkinson reports that prior to the cloud migrations, they were held captive in one single data center. “If anything happened to that data center, we would not have a way to respond and provide services. In migrating to Microsoft Azure, we're replicating across multiple stacks. We have high availability. If there were a true disaster, we could backup and restore to a geophysical location in another area—be up and running in a matter of hours. I sleep better at night knowing that our resources are going to be available when needed.”

Natural disaster recovery isn’t the only solution Azure has provided for their needs; it helps them to be proactive as well. “Invasive species are a big issue in the state of Florida,” says Atkinson. “Everybody knows we've got pythons in the Everglades, and every year we have a big Python Challenge to bring awareness, allow people to harvest pythons, [and] bring down the population. With Azure, we now have flexibility because when we need to spin up a website for the Python Challenge, we spin it up. When the hunt's over, we spin it back down and wait until next year, so we can manage our resources effectively. We're able to do more with less now because we're able to optimize our resources and see what do we really need to do to provide resources.”

Casting out for the future

Now that the migration is complete, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is looking to improve even more. “We're looking across our .NET environment. We have .NET SQL development infrastructure, so we’re exploring modernized application tools, such as Azure Functions, App Service, Azure SQL, Key Vault, [and] API Management services and containers, to make sure we're providing these applications in the best way possible,” says Atkinson.

Atkinson and her team are motivated to ensure that Florida continues to be a wonderful place for years to come. “Everyone knows now that technology is a part of everything,” says Atkinson. “I feel good knowing that we've made this journey to migrate into Microsoft Azure. It gives us the infrastructure to ensure that future generations are going to have opportunities to hunt, fish, save and recreate coral, and fight invasive species. We want to have a good environment for future generations.”

Atkinson adds, “Microsoft Azure has been vital for us. With Azure portal, we can log in at any given time and spin up a new server. Click of a button. It's so easy, even a CIO could do it.”

Find out more about the FWC on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

“Microsoft Azure has been vital for us. With Azure portal, we can log in at any given time and spin up a new server. Click of a button. It's so easy, even a CIO could do it.”

Glenda Atkinson, Chief Information Officer, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

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