Steering the Right Course
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys | An AWS Case Study
INDUSTRY
Membership/Nonprofit
CHALLENGE
CIPA's ageing Microsoft server environment had become a security liability, with end-of-support operating systems, no redundancy, and growing compliance risk around sensitive member data.
RESULTS
Legacy infrastructure replaced with a secure, UK-hosted AWS environment delivering up to 70% cost savings on compute, modernised security, and a compliant platform built for the needs of a regulated membership body.
KEY SERVICE
AWS Migration
Success Metrics
ABOUT OUR CLIENT
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) is the professional and examining body for patent attorneys in the United Kingdom. Representing IP professionals through advocacy, education, and regulatory oversight, CIPA operates in an environment where data integrity, compliance, and member trust are not optional extras -- they are the foundation of everything the organisation does.
"This is why I value CIPA’s relationship with Dudobi. They deliver technological solutions that improve our infrastructure and our services to members, but translated in a way we can actually engage with and understand.
As Chief Executive, I have absolute trust and faith in the advice and guidance we’re offered. I know Dudobi will steer the right course.”
— Lee Davies, CEO, Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA)
The Challenge
"The language of technology can be interminably impenetrable," says Lee Davies, CIPA's CEO. "To the lay person, it's complex, confusing and scary." That tension sits at the heart of why CIPA's infrastructure situation had become so difficult to address. Their VMware-based environment was running Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2012 R2, both well past Microsoft's end-of-support dates, leaving critical workloads exposed to mounting security vulnerabilities. The environment hosted a CRM platform, terminal services carrying active Sage data and live user sessions, and web applications -- all tightly interdependent and highly sensitive to disruption. Modernising without taking down live services required careful, expert-led planning. CIPA needed a partner who could navigate the complexity and explain it clearly.
The Solution
Dudobi designed a phased migration using AWS Application Migration Service, sequenced to protect CIPA's most critical workloads at every stage. The CRM server was migrated first as a controlled test, validating the process before touching anything business-critical. Rather than carrying the risks of the legacy Windows environment into AWS, the terminal server was rebuilt from scratch on a current Windows Server platform, with user profiles and Sage data migrated systematically. The remaining web and application servers were then cut over in a coordinated move that preserved all application dependencies.
Once AWS-based services proved stable, legacy domain controllers were decommissioned cleanly. Throughout, the architecture was designed for UK data residency in AWS eu-west-2, ensuring CIPA's obligations around member data sovereignty were met from day one.
As Lee Davies puts it, Dudobi delivered the solution "translated in a way we can actually engage with and understand."
The Results
CIPA emerged from the migration with infrastructure that no longer requires anxiety. End-of-life operating systems have been retired entirely, replaced by a modern, encrypted environment with GuardDuty threat detection, IAM-based access controls, and centralised monitoring. Reserved Instances delivered up to 70% in cost savings on Windows Server compute, and the platform now scales dynamically to meet demand. Most importantly, the migration was completed without disrupting member services -- no outages, no data loss, no compliance incidents. CIPA can now focus on serving the IP profession, confident that the infrastructure underneath them is secure, governed, and built to last.