The Barossa Council

The Challenge

Like many local councils, The Barossa Council runs a large, complex IT environment that had grown organically over many years: dozens of servers across multiple sites, and a broad Microsoft 365 estate supporting staff, elected members and services to the community. Much of the enterprise-grade security capability the Council was already paying for sat unused, parts of the infrastructure were approaching or past end of support, and there was no proven, tested path to recover from a major outage or cyber incident.

The Council needed a clear, prioritised plan, grounded in evidence rather than assumption, to reduce risk and modernise without disrupting the services ratepayers rely on.

The Solution

InterIntra started with a detailed current-state audit of the Council's entire environment, covering identity, servers, network, backup, endpoints and Microsoft 365, capturing findings, risks and recommendations against recognised standards including the ACSC Essential Eight. Rather than a one-off report, the audit fed directly into a prioritised 12-month roadmap: a sequenced program of workstreams, each tied back to a specific risk and, wherever possible, to capability the Council already owned.

Delivery is led on-site by InterIntra specialists and overseen by a dedicated project coordinator, giving the Council a single point of accountability and steady momentum across the year. The program spans the foundations that matter most:

• Backup and recovery assurance. Proving that backups can actually be recovered, and documenting a real, tested disaster recovery plan rather than an assumed one.
• Identity and privileged access. Hardening Microsoft Entra ID and Active Directory, and tightening who holds administrative rights and how those accounts are protected.
• Microsoft 365 security uplift. Activating the enterprise-grade security tooling already included in the Council's licensing, aligned to the Essential Eight.
• Server platform modernisation. Moving the server estate onto current, supported systems, supported by a business case for the Council's future platform.
• Network foundations and monitoring. Building the network visibility needed to see what is actually happening across sites.
• Security operations. Standing up continuous security monitoring and threat detection so incidents are caught early rather than discovered later.

The consistent theme is converting tools and licensing the Council already pays for into working, measurable protection rather than new spend.

The Outcome

The engagement moved quickly from strategy into delivery. Early workstreams are already in flight, with changes rolling out through a formal change-management process, from strengthened sign-in controls and mobile data protection to phishing-resilience training, standardised time synchronisation and web content filtering, alongside a business case for the Council's future server platform.

Each initiative is sequenced against the roadmap and mapped back to the risks it retires, so the Council can see measurable progress month on month. InterIntra continues to deliver the program as the Council's strategic IT partner, lifting the environment toward a modern, well-monitored and recoverable posture, with the evidence base to demonstrate that standard to auditors, insurers and the community. Curious where your own organisation stands? Start with our free Essential Eight self-assessment tool.