Lotto NZ: Modernising a National Platform for Multi-Channel Content Delivery
A national lottery platform serving millions of New Zealanders was running on outdated infrastructure. Their Drupal 8 installation had become a constraint—difficult to maintain, lacking modern API capabilities, and unable to support the multi-channel content delivery they needed for future growth.
Key metrics: Zero downtime during migration, 100% security compliance maintained for financial transactions, API infrastructure built for multi-channel expansion, millions of users served without interruption.
The Challenge
The platform had outgrown its technical foundation. The organisation needed to:
- Modernise without disruption - Zero downtime acceptable for a platform processing lottery transactions 24/7
- Build API infrastructure - Future roadmap required content delivery to mobile apps, kiosks, and third-party integrations—capabilities the legacy system couldn't support
- Meet financial security standards - 100% compliance required for payment processing and customer data
- Eliminate technical debt - Years of patches and workarounds had accumulated, making maintenance expensive and risky
- Enable future growth - The platform needed to become a content infrastructure, not just a website
The challenge wasn't simply upgrading Drupal versions. It was modernising the entire content platform to support multi-channel delivery whilst maintaining perfect uptime for a critical national service.
The Approach
We modernised the platform through a systematic, zero-risk migration whilst building the API infrastructure needed for multi-channel content delivery.
Platform Audit and Migration Strategy
Before touching code, we conducted a comprehensive audit:
- Mapped all custom modules and dependencies
- Identified deprecated code and architectural debt
- Designed migration path from Drupal 8 to 11 with rollback capabilities at each stage
- Established automated testing to catch regressions before deployment
- Created staging environments mirroring production exactly
The migration strategy prioritised zero downtime—critical for a platform processing transactions around the clock.
Content Platform Modernisation
Upgraded the Drupal core whilst refactoring for modern architecture:
- Migrated to Drupal 11 with latest security patches and performance improvements
- Refactored custom modules to modern standards
- Eliminated years of accumulated technical debt
- Implemented automated testing coverage across critical paths
- Optimised database queries and caching layers
API Infrastructure Development
Built RESTful API endpoints to enable future multi-channel delivery:
- Designed API architecture for mobile apps, kiosks, and third-party integrations
- Implemented secure authentication and authorization layers
- Built versioned endpoints with backwards compatibility
- Optimised API performance with intelligent caching
- Documented endpoints for future development teams
The APIs transform the platform from a website into a content infrastructure that can power multiple digital properties.
Security Hardening
Enhanced security across the platform to maintain financial compliance:
- Implemented Drupal security best practices and hardening guides
- Conducted penetration testing and vulnerability assessments
- Established automated security monitoring and alerting
- Hardened API endpoints with rate limiting and access controls
- Achieved 100% compliance with financial industry security standards
The Results
From legacy website to modern content infrastructure—with zero downtime.
- Zero downtime during migration - Millions of users continued lottery transactions without interruption whilst the platform was comprehensively modernised
- 100% security compliance - Maintained all financial industry security standards through the migration and hardening process
- API-ready architecture - Platform can now power mobile apps, kiosks, and third-party integrations—capabilities impossible with the legacy system
- Technical debt eliminated - Years of patches and workarounds replaced with modern, maintainable code
- Deployment confidence - Automated testing across critical paths enables faster, safer feature releases
The modernised platform transformed from a monolithic website into a scalable content infrastructure ready to support multi-channel delivery. The organisation now has the foundation to expand digital services without rebuilding from scratch.
