Secure cloud migration for schools and Multi-Academy Trusts. Move to Microsoft 365, Intune, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams with expert planning, migration and ongoing support from L.E.A.D. IT Services.
Modern schools and Multi-Academy Trusts need technology that is secure, flexible and easy to manage. Legacy servers, fragmented Microsoft 365 environments and ageing infrastructure can make that increasingly difficult, creating unnecessary complexity, increasing cyber risk and limiting the ability of staff to work and collaborate effectively.
L.E.A.D. IT Services helps schools and Trusts move from traditional, on-premises infrastructure to modern, cloud-managed environments built around Microsoft 365, Microsoft Intune, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams.
But successful cloud migration is about much more than moving files from one place to another.
We plan the entire journey, from discovery and technical design through to data migration, device deployment, testing, staff handover and ongoing support. Our experienced team works closely with school and Trust leaders to minimise disruption, protect data and create an environment that is secure, scalable and ready for the future.
For many schools, traditional IT environments have evolved over years. Local servers, separate Microsoft 365 tenancies, ageing devices and different ways of working between schools can create a complicated technology estate that is difficult and expensive to manage.
For growing Multi-Academy Trusts, that challenge can become even greater. Acquisitions and school growth often mean bringing together organisations operating different systems, technologies and security standards.
A well-planned cloud migration creates an opportunity to simplify that environment.
By bringing devices, identities, applications and data into a modern Microsoft cloud environment, schools and Trusts can benefit from:
Cloud migration is sometimes presented as simply transferring files into OneDrive or replacing a server. We take a much broader approach.
Every organisation is different. Before recommending a migration strategy, we look at your existing technology, how staff actually work and what your organisation needs its technology to achieve.
That can include reviewing:
That understanding allows us to build a migration plan around your organisation rather than forcing your organisation around the technology.
Moving away from traditional on-premises device management provides schools and Trusts with an opportunity to create a more consistent, secure and manageable technology environment.
L.E.A.D. IT Services can design and implement Microsoft Intune-managed Windows environments, enabling devices to be centrally configured and managed through Microsoft’s cloud platform.
Rather than relying upon every device being connected to a school’s local infrastructure for management, cloud-managed devices provide greater flexibility while giving IT teams centralised control over configuration.
Our approach can include the technical design, implementation, testing and validation of the Microsoft Intune environment, alongside the development of a repeatable migration methodology that can be rolled out across individual schools or an entire Trust.
For growing Trusts in particular, that means new schools and devices can ultimately become part of a consistent Trust-wide technology strategy rather than creating another technology island.
Bring your schools together
One of the biggest technology challenges facing growing Multi-Academy Trusts is fragmentation.
Individual schools may have historically operated separate Microsoft 365 tenancies, each developed independently with different settings, user structures and approaches to security and collaboration.
As a Trust grows, managing multiple environments can become increasingly complex. L.E.A.D. IT Services can help consolidate these environments into a more coherent Trust-wide Microsoft 365 structure.
This can create opportunities for:
The objective is not standardisation for its own sake. It is to create a secure and consistent foundation while recognising the operational needs and identity of individual schools.
Your files and information are central to the day-to-day running of your organisation, so their migration needs to be carefully planned.
We help organisations move data away from traditional local storage and into appropriate Microsoft 365 cloud environments, including OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.
For example, individual staff files may be better suited to OneDrive, while shared departmental or organisational information can be structured within Teams and SharePoint.
Just as importantly, our migration handover process checks that appropriate users can access required departmental and shared information following migration.
For a business, disruption during a major IT project can be inconvenient. In a school, it can mean interrupted lessons, inaccessible resources and frustrated teachers arriving on Monday morning unable to teach as planned.
We understand the difference.
That’s why our migration planning is built around the operational realities of schools.
Where appropriate, major device migrations can be undertaken outside normal teaching hours. Our established process includes collecting staff devices after school, rebuilding and configuring them over a weekend and returning them ready for use before lessons resume.
Behind that seemingly simple process is detailed planning: backing up information, rebuilding Windows devices, migrating data, installing required applications, configuring printing, checking connectivity and ensuring the right resources are available when staff return.
It is this combination of technical capability and understanding of education that makes the difference.
29 schools. One secure Microsoft 365 environment. Not one lost teaching day.
A large-scale Trust migration delivered around school operations, including evenings, weekends and holidays.
Working with Embark Federation, L.E.A.D. IT Services helped transform a fragmented technology landscape into a coherent Trust-wide environment.
As the Trust grew, individual schools were operating separate Microsoft 365 tenancies. L.E.A.D. IT worked alongside the Trust and its schools to plan and deliver the transition to a unified environment.
The programme consolidated 29 mature Microsoft 365 tenancies into one Trust-wide tenancy within a single year, alongside the wider refresh of approximately 4,000 staff and classroom devices. The work was undertaken around school operations so that teaching could continue.
The tenancy migration resulted in just 113 support tickets, with none recorded as service-affecting. Across the wider partnership, service-affecting incidents fell by 70% as a share of support requests, while the single environment enabled new forms of Trust-wide collaboration and reporting.
The result is much more than a technical migration. It gives the Trust a common platform from which it can operate, collaborate and innovate.
We start with your current environment. Our team identifies the systems, devices, applications, users, data and dependencies that need to be considered and works with key stakeholders to understand both immediate requirements and longer-term objectives.
We develop a migration approach that considers sequencing, technical dependencies, user requirements, security, and operational impact. For a Multi-Academy Trust, this can include developing a repeatable model that allows schools to migrate to a common standard while taking account of individual site requirements.
Before migration begins, we prepare Microsoft 365, Intune, identities, devices, permissions and data structures and identify any applications or specialist requirements that must be retained. Communication is vital at this stage. Staff need to understand what will happen, when it will happen and anything they need to do beforehand.
Our technical teams carry out the migration according to the agreed schedule. Depending on the environment, this may involve Microsoft 365 tenancy migration, data transfer, Windows device rebuilding, Intune enrolment, application deployment and the transition of users away from legacy infrastructure. Where appropriate, work can be scheduled around evenings, weekends and school holidays to minimise disruption.
Going live is not the end of the migration. We check the things staff actually rely upon: accounts, files, OneDrive synchronisation, Teams, shared folders, permissions, calendars, printing, connectivity and essential applications. Any issues identified can then be addressed quickly before they become operational problems.
The biggest benefit of moving to the cloud comes after migration. We continue to help organisations optimise and manage their environment; strengthening security, improving ways of working and ensuring that technology continues to support the organisation as it develops.
Cloud Migration for Growing Multi-Academy Trusts
Cloud migration can be particularly valuable for MATs going through growth or consolidation. Bringing a new school into a Trust shouldn’t mean inheriting another technology silo indefinitely.
We can work with central teams to develop a repeatable onboarding and migration approach that supports greater consistency across the organisation.
Over time, this can help leadership teams move away from managing multiple disconnected IT environments towards a clearer view of technology across the entire organisation.
One Trust. One strategy.
A technology environment built to grow with you.
Technology projects need to work around teaching, safeguarding, staff and pupils, not the other way around. Our approach has been developed through hands-on experience supporting schools and Multi-Academy Trusts.
Cloud migration involves devices, networking, applications, users, data, security and change management. We bring those strands together rather than treating migration as an isolated technical task.
Where necessary, migration activity can be planned around school closures, weekends and holidays, with detailed testing before systems are handed back to users.
Our goal isn’t simply to get you into the cloud. It is to provide a more secure, manageable and scalable foundation for what comes next.
Our wider approach is built around strategic partnership, aligning technology with leadership priorities, budgets, security, governance and long-term organisational growth.
Ready to Move to the Cloud?
Whether you’re looking to remove ageing servers from a single school, modernise device management with Microsoft Intune, migrate data into Microsoft 365 or consolidate multiple school tenancies into a single Trust-wide environment, we’re here to help.
We’ll start by understanding where you are today, where you want to be and what needs to happen to get you there safely.
Much more than moving files. Depending on your starting point, it can include reviewing your existing Microsoft 365 tenancies, user identities, servers, devices, applications and permissions; moving data into OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams; rebuilding and enrolling Windows devices into Microsoft Intune; and testing everything staff rely on before handover. We plan the whole journey, from discovery and design through to migration, handover and ongoing support.
Our process is designed to avoid that. Major device migrations can be scheduled outside teaching hours. Our established approach is to collect staff devices after school, rebuild and configure them over a weekend, and return them ready for use before lessons resume. Larger programmes can also be planned around evenings and school holidays. When we consolidated 29 school tenancies for Embark Federation, not one teaching day was lost.
It depends on the size and complexity of your environment: the number of sites, users, devices and applications, and how much consolidation is needed. A single school is a very different project from a Trust-wide programme. For context, we consolidated 29 mature Microsoft 365 tenancies into one Trust-wide tenancy within a single year, alongside the refresh of around 4,000 devices. Our discovery and assessment stage gives you a realistic timeline before any work begins.
Many schools can significantly reduce, or remove, their reliance on local servers. Whether you can remove them entirely depends on what they currently do. Some specialist curriculum, finance or administrative applications may still need local infrastructure. We identify these dependencies during discovery, so you know what can move, what needs to stay and why, before any decisions are made.
We review your applications as part of discovery, including specialist curriculum software, classroom technology and finance and administrative systems. We then plan how each one will be deployed, accessed or retained in the new environment, and we test essential applications during handover so staff can carry on working as normal.
Protecting your data is central to how we plan every migration. Information is backed up before devices are rebuilt, data is moved to the right place in Microsoft 365, and permissions are prepared in advance. After migration, our handover process checks that the right people can access the right departmental and shared information, and that others cannot.
Each has a different purpose. Individual staff files are usually best suited to OneDrive. Shared departmental and organisational information is typically structured in Teams and SharePoint, so it is easier to find, share and manage. We design that structure with you, based on how your staff actually work.
Microsoft Intune is Microsoft’s cloud-based device management platform. It lets your IT team configure, secure and manage Windows devices centrally, without each device needing to be connected to the school’s local network to receive updates and settings. For Trusts, it also makes it much easier to apply one consistent standard across every school.
In many cases, yes. Existing Windows devices can often be rebuilt, configured and enrolled into Intune as part of the migration. Discovery will highlight any devices that may not be suitable, so you can plan replacements alongside the migration rather than being surprised by them.
Yes. Tenancy consolidation is one of our specialisms. We help Trusts move from multiple, independently developed tenancies into a single, coherent Trust-wide environment with consistent security, centralised management and Trust-wide Teams and SharePoint, while still respecting the identity and operational needs of each school.
No. For Trusts, we usually develop a repeatable migration model that schools can move through in planned phases, each to a common standard while taking account of individual site requirements. This spreads the work, reduces risk and lets each migration benefit from the lessons of the last.
Yes. A new school shouldn’t mean inheriting another technology silo indefinitely. We can work with your central team to create a repeatable onboarding approach, so new schools and their devices can be brought into your Trust-wide environment in a planned, consistent way.
Very little, but communication matters. Before migration, we help you make sure staff understand what will happen, when it will happen and anything they need to do beforehand. After go-live, we check the things they depend on, including accounts, files, OneDrive sync, Teams, calendars, printing and essential applications, so they can get straight back to work.
Absolutely. We work closely with school leaders, Trust central teams and in-house IT staff throughout the project. Our aim is to complement your existing team, bringing additional capacity and migration experience while leaving them with an environment that is easier to manage.
Going live is not the end. We continue to help you manage and optimise your environment, strengthening security, improving ways of working and making sure your technology keeps supporting the organisation as it grows.
Every school and Trust starts from a different place, so costs depend on the scope of work, the number of sites, users and devices, and what needs to be migrated or consolidated. We start by understanding your current environment and objectives, then provide a clear proposal based on what your organisation actually needs.
Book a cloud migration consultation. We’ll talk through where you are today, where you want to be and what needs to happen to get you there safely, whether that is retiring ageing servers at a single school or consolidating a whole Trust into one Microsoft 365 environment.
