# Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)

Application Modernisation

## Background

Founded in 1858, **Anglia Ruskin University** has grown to 40,000 students across 4 main campus locations. ARU is also a progressive adopter of technology to enable a modern learning environment. The technology estate within ARU encompasses many traditional, on-premise management systems for students, courses and staff. ARU sought to consolidate its systems and enable simple, cost-effective integrations across vendors.

### We needed help modernising our current complex technology estate. What appealed to us most about fourTheorem, was their approach to preserving systems of value rather than rebuilding from scratch.

### As leaders in next-generation cloud, fourTheorem used their expertise with technologies such as Kafka to evolve our existing systems, bridging on-premise with cloud.

## The Challenge

- Complex integration of finance, HR, CRM and identity management systems with modern SaaS applications  
- Robust integrations sought to reduce TCO and minimise OPEX

## The Solution

- In-depth architectural review and recommendations  
- Architectural plan to reduce cost of maintenance  
- Technology roadmap with POC to validate approach  
- Cloud/on-premise Kafka event bus

## The Outcome

- Scalable, event-driven integration platform with reduced TCO  
- Avoided vendor lock-in of proprietary ESB alternatives  
- Major milestone in cloud adoption enables Smart Campus strategy