Topdanmark completes a business-critical carve-out with Azure landing zones

When a fixed deadline leaves no room for error

Modernization initiatives in insurance are often complicated by longstanding systems and operational dependencies that make change difficult to execute safely. Topdanmark encountered these realities during the separation of its Life & Pension business.

The carve-out required the organization to migrate workloads, users, applications, and operational processes from an existing on-premises environment into a new operating model. Completing the work on time was critical to maintaining business continuity. What made the timeline unforgiving was its source. The deadline was contractual, tied to the divestment itself, and finishing the cutover on schedule was essential to keeping the separation on track while maintaining everyday operations.

This carried the weight of a critical transformation: significant operational complexity, business continuity risk, and a fixed timeline that couldn’t move.

Technology leaders faced a clear challenge while maintaining complete control over security, compliance, and operational continuity. According to Peter Brandt, Program Director, Topdanmark, “The challenge wasn’t moving workloads to the cloud. The challenge was executing a business-critical separation under a fixed deadline without compromising operations, security, or compliance.”

Finding a better path forward

The pressure surrounding the project was amplified by an earlier migration approach that did not deliver the required outcome, increasing the urgency to find a more reliable path forward. Continuing down the same path would have increased delivery risk and made it difficult to meet the remaining timeline.

The experience exposed an important lesson. The organization had been treating governance, identity, security, and migration execution as separate workstreams. That approach introduced complexity, increased dependencies, and made it harder to coordinate activities within a narrow delivery window. Topdanmark needed a different model.

To shift from fragmented workstreams to a single transformation program, Topdanmark worked with Microsoft Industry Solutions Delivery (ISD) and Microsoft Unified. ISD led the solution design and implementation, establishing a governed cloud operating model that reduced risk and accelerated modernization. Microsoft Unified helped support operational readiness and a stable production launch.

Instead of attempting to connect multiple environments and controls during migration, Topdanmark chose to establish a fully governed cloud foundation before moving workloads.

The goal was not simply creating a new environment; it was creating certainty.

By standardizing infrastructure, identity, governance, and security from the outset, Topdanmark could reduce execution risk while accelerating delivery. This became the turning point in the transformation. Says Brandt, “Working with Azure, the breakthrough came when we stopped treating governance and migration as separate workstreams.”

Building a governed cloud foundation

To support the carve-out, Topdanmark implemented a dedicated Microsoft Azure landing zone architecture.

Azure landing zones provided a standardized framework for deploying infrastructure, governance, security, and identity controls consistently across the new environment. Rather than building controls individually for each workload, the organization established policies and standards that applied across the platform.

Microsoft Entra ID helped establish the identity separation required for the carve-out while maintaining centralized governance, access management, and auditing. Azure Policy provided a policy-based governance framework that helped apply operational guardrails consistently across the new environment from deployment through ongoing operations. Defender for Cloud delivered visibility into the platform’s security posture, helping teams identify and manage risks throughout the transition.

Together, these capabilities established a governed cloud operating model where infrastructure, identity, security, and compliance worked as a single system. Rather than adding controls after migration, Topdanmark built them into the platform from day one. This strategy helped support a successful handover, minimize execution risk, and establish a foundation for future transformation following the separation.

The cloud-based approach also gave teams the flexibility to scale capacity and performance throughout development, testing, and migration rehearsals. The ability to adjust resources as needed helped the organization validate the environment efficiently while maintaining governance and continuity.

The flexibility of the cloud environment also proved valuable after go-live. Teams could scale resources up when additional performance was needed and scale them down during hypercare as workloads stabilized. As a result, Topdanmark could adapt as it modernized decades-old systems whose performance and behavior could not always be predicted in advance.

Proving readiness before go-live

One of the most valuable aspects of the implementation was the emphasis on operational validation.

Rather than relying on theoretical readiness reviews, the team conducted multiple full-scale migration simulations, often referred to as fire drills, to replicate real-world cutover conditions. These exercises tested infrastructure readiness, workload performance, identity separation, governance controls, operational procedures, and recovery plans before production deployment.

The simulations became a critical risk-reduction mechanism. Each exercise helped identify issues, validate assumptions, and strengthen confidence that the environment could support the final migration under real-world conditions.

The fire drills transformed migration readiness from a planning exercise into an evidence-based process. By the time the production cutover occurred, Topdanmark had already proven that the architecture, governance model, and operational procedures could perform under pressure.

The result was a controlled go-live executed without disruption to business operations. This approach offers a valuable lesson for CIOs leading similar transformations: success is often determined before the migration begins.

Delivering measurable business outcomes

The project delivered both operational and business value. Operationally, Azure landing zones supported rapid deployment of production-ready environments, while infrastructure as code provided repeatable and consistent provisioning across the platform. The team applied governance, identity, and security controls uniformly, improving visibility and reducing operational risk.

Topdanmark completed the carve-out on schedule, migrating roughly 700 users through automated provisioning while maintaining operational continuity throughout the transition.

Most importantly, the migration occurred without interrupting operations. For Topdanmark, success depended on completing the separation without disrupting customers, employees, or core business processes. “Success wasn’t measured by completing the migration. Success was completing it without customers or operations ever feeling the impact,” says Brandt.

A repeatable model for modernizing with confidence

The project delivered more than a successful carve-out. It demonstrated a repeatable model for executing high-risk transformations in regulated environments.

By combining Azure landing zones, Microsoft Entra ID, Azure Policy, Defender for Cloud, and Zero Trust principles, Topdanmark established a platform where governance, identity, security, and compliance were embedded into the operating model rather than added later.

The lesson for CIOs is clear: establish governance, identity, and security before the first workload moves. Building control into the foundation is what makes speed possible later.

Topdanmark’s experience demonstrates that organizations do not have to choose between speed and control. With the right cloud foundation, the organization moved fast precisely because it maintained control—the standard that any regulated modernization can aim for.

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