The Fifth Trust is a Kent-based charity supporting adults with learning disabilities. Through its vocational training centres and community-based programmes, The Fifth Trust empowers individuals to develop life skills, gain confidence, and integrate into society. With a dedicated team of staff and volunteers, the organisation relies heavily on its IT systems to provide a seamless experience for staff, carers, and the people it supports.
The Fifth Trust had been running on an outdated, on-premise IT environment, with legacy servers, flat network infrastructure, and ageing systems that created long-term reliability and security risks.
Connectivity across the organisation had become inconsistent, with frequent disruptions slowing down staff and causing frustration. Telephony was also tied to an older server-based setup, which limited flexibility and left the Trust with higher ongoing costs than necessary.
The leadership team recognised that the IT infrastructure was no longer fit for purpose, especially as the charity continued to expand its services. There was a growing concern that end-of-life technology, lacking updates and security patches, exposed the organisation to unnecessary cyber risk. The Trust needed a modern, secure, and cost-effective solution to reduce complexity, improve staff experience, and ensure long-term operational resilience.
Reliable worked alongside The Fifth Trust to implement a Cloud First Strategy. This project involved replacing outdated infrastructure with a modern, serverless environment designed for long-term scalability and security.
Key deliverables included:
– Structured network migration – moving from a flat network to a segmented, secure design to reduce vulnerabilities.
– Security policy rollout – implementation of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), device access control, and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) safeguards.
– Cloud adoption – devices migrated to Entra ID with legacy file and print servers decommissioned, ensuring all staff could collaborate in real time through Microsoft 365 services.
– Telephony & cost optimisation – removing reliance on legacy on-premise servers and simplifying communications to create a more flexible, cost-efficient setup.
– Backup & risk reduction – legacy backup schedules were retired and replaced with streamlined, modern policies.
– Reliable connectivity and faster day-to-day operations.
– Secure, modern collaboration tools accessible from anywhere.
– Reduced risks of cyber threats thanks to advanced policies and decommissioning of outdated systems.
– A future-proof platform that allows The Fifth Trust to scale its services without worrying about IT bottlenecks.
– Long-term cost savings by eliminating legacy telephony costs and reducing overheads associated with on-premise server maintenance.
