Primary speaker:
Mohammed Rawoof Shaik, Senior Developer & Project Supervisor, University Registrar's Office
Description:
The University Registrar’s Office (URO) is modernizing its long‑standing URO HUB platform to overcome challenges tied to aging on‑premises infrastructure, complex maintenance cycles, security‑review bottlenecks and limited data‑integration capabilities. These constraints hinder innovation and restrict the office’s ability to deliver scalable, resilient services for students and staff. To address this, a proof of concept (PoC) is proposed to re‑architect the URO HUB into a modern, cloud‑native API ecosystem built on Microsoft Azure.
The PoC adopts contemporary engineering principles — twelve‑factor app methodology, cloud‑first and API‑first design, domain‑driven design, test‑driven development and DevSecOps aligned with Zero Trust and Defense‑in‑Depth security models. Core components include implementing Angular–based clients (on Static Web Apps) and Spring Boot–based resource servers (on App Service) with Microsoft Entra ID authentication and authorization, leveraging SQL Managed Instance (with password and passwordless modes), enabling Azure Monitor and App Insights for observability, integrating SharePoint for document management and modernizing the frontend using Angular with centralized UI components. The initiative also explores Azure B2C for external identities and investigates advanced capabilities such as Cosmos DB auditing with JaVers and Flyway database migrations.
The PoC experiments with Azure capabilities, establishing innovative technical patterns and laying foundations for scalable, repeatable long‑term solutions.
The PoC attempts to provide an end‑to‑end guide for building applications within the University of Toronto’s Azure environment. It details onboarding to the Azure landing zone, using Privileged Identity Management (PIM), configuring Angular apps with MSAL and App Insights, setting up DevOps pipelines, designing Spring Boot resource servers, managing SQL MI permissions, Grouper‑to‑Entra ID group synchronization and implementing API governance through APIM and OpenTelemetry‑based observability. The PoC establishs a secure, extensible, future‑ready digital ecosystem for URO.
