The successful cooperation between Zaporizhzhia National University (ZNU) and its technology partners, as well as participation in the Microsoft for Ukraine Relief program, continues. One of the key outcomes of this collaboration has been the creation of a modern cloud infrastructure that ensures uninterrupted educational processes. This is especially important for ZNU, a frontline university that requires reliable and stable operation of digital education services.
Zaporizhzhia National University (ZNU) is one of Ukraine’s leading higher education institutions, comprising 12 faculties, the Engineering Educational and Research Institute, 4 colleges, and a large scientific library. Today, more than 17,000 students study at ZNU across 110 bachelor's and 85 master's degree programs.
As reported by ZNU’s press service, under the agreement between the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Microsoft Corporation, the university decided to migrate its IT infrastructure to Azure cloud services. Microsoft’s certified partner, Span Ukraine, was selected as the technology partner for implementing this project.
The university’s technical specialists, together with Span Ukraine’s expert team, developed a detailed migration plan and successfully completed the project before the start of the academic year. The work involved a comprehensive analysis of the existing infrastructure, the development of an architectural diagram, and migration planning with minimal downtime. The solution was designed according to the Zero Trust model and current cybersecurity recommendations. The final stage included the phased migration of services from AWS and local servers, thorough functionality and performance testing, and final configuration of security systems.
Technical Overview
The new cloud infrastructure ensures comprehensive protection thanks to modern systems and IT services that provide centralized user management, multi-layered protection from cyber threats, and defense against distributed attacks. The deployed architecture enables secure remote access and efficient load balancing. Reliable cloud solutions with automated backup are used for data storage and application hosting. The system also includes tools for centralized performance monitoring and AI-powered automation of administrative tasks.
Results, Benefits, and Future Plans
Security and Reliability. The modernized infrastructure has significantly strengthened ZNU’s digital resilience as a frontline university, thanks to multi-layer protection and automatic data backups.
Scalability and Performance. The Azure infrastructure enables rapid adaptation to the university’s evolving needs, ensuring stable performance during peak loads and scalable capacity without excessive capital investment.
AI Technologies in Infrastructure Management. Azure Copilot has significantly simplified the execution of routine infrastructure tasks, allowing the university’s IT department to focus on strategic goals.
“ZNU’s IT specialists demonstrate a proactive approach to using artificial intelligence and quickly adapt to modern challenges. In addition to Azure Copilot, our teams are also exploring the use of other Microsoft AI solutions, including Azure AI Foundry,” says Oleksii Myronov, Project Lead at Span Ukraine.
Prospects for Technological Development. The next step in the collaboration with Microsoft will be the implementation of Microsoft 365 for Education, supported by Span. This will greatly expand educational opportunities for both students and faculty by providing access to a wide range of tools for collaboration, content creation, and learning process organization.
Soon, with the support of Span’s experts, ZNU will begin exploring the use of AI in the daily work of students and educators through the implementation of Copilot Chat.
“We deeply care about the future of Ukrainian youth and the quality of their education. Zaporizhzhia National University, with its rich history and highly qualified academic staff working under extremely difficult conditions, absolutely deserves the best digital solutions. That’s why we are doing everything possible to provide the university with Microsoft’s top-tier products and professional support from our certified experts,” — noted Oleg Avilov, CEO of Span Ukraine.
The project to migrate ZNU’s IT infrastructure to Microsoft Azure demonstrates how the combination of support from the Microsoft for Ukraine Relief program, Span’s professional expertise, and the proactive leadership of the university allows Ukrainian higher education institutions to successfully modernize their technological capabilities – even under wartime conditions.
For consultation regarding cloud migration services, please contact the certified experts at Span Ukraine at: info.ua@span.eu.
Learn more on our website: http://www.span.eu/ua.
