Emerald Publishing embeds sustainability into its cloud integration strategy
Emerald Publishing partnered with Solidsoft Reply and Valorem Reply to build a greener, scalable integration layer on Microsoft Azure - reducing manual effort, improving efficiency, and supporting sustainable digital growth.
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The challenge
Modernizing the Emerald integration platform, moving from fragmented workflows to an efficient Azure base that can support growth, enable the new content delivery platform, and reduce environmental impact.
scenario
Enabling modern publishing with automated and sustainable integration
Emerald Publishing is one of the world’s leading digital-first academic publishers, commissioning, curating and showcasing research that can make a real difference. Its publishing model depends on the reliable, large-scale movement of publication metadata, products, subscription records and author information across platforms. Rapid growth in research output, alongside the acquisition of new publishers, placed increasing pressure on an ageing and inconsistent integration landscape.
At the same time, Emerald’s commitment to sustainability required a platform that reduced compute consumption and minimised the environmental footprint of its digital operations. To support the successful July 2025 launch of Emerald’s new content delivery platform—and to scale responsibly beyond it—the organisation needed a unified, cloud-native integration layer that was automated, energy-efficient and designed for long-term evolution.
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The solution
A sustainable Integration Service Layer built on Azure
Solidsoft Reply and Valorem Reply designed and delivered an Azure-based Integration Service Layer (ISL) that centralises, automates and secures integration between pre-existing Emerald systems and those from newly acquired publishers, enabling Emerald to scale without increasing operational waste. Azure Integration Services were selected to simplify the architecture, remove energy-intensive point-to-point connections, and provide a sustainable foundation for future growth.
the approach
Sustainable architecture, efficient patterns, and a no/low-code delivery model
Working closely with Emerald, Solidsoft Reply and Valorem Reply applied Azure’s no/low-code integration capabilities to deliver a maintainable, scalable and environmentally efficient solution. Sustainability shaped architectural decisions throughout the project: Azure regions were assessed for datacentre energy efficiency, and the most efficient region that met all functional requirements was selected. Integration flows were deliberately designed to minimise compute load—reducing both carbon footprint and operational cost.
The ISL leverages Valorem Reply’s QuickConnect accelerator for structured error management, monitoring and translation, ensuring reliable end-to-end processing. Serverless and event-driven components ensure resources are consumed only when required, avoiding idle compute and supporting greener cloud operations.
Faster large-scale content onboarding
The Data Bulk Load Tool ingested more than 100,000 products and 700,000 subscription records in under one week, preventing programme slippage and accelerating go-live.
Reduced manual effort
Automated integrations replace tasks that would otherwise require an estimated one to two full-time staff members, reducing errors and freeing teams to focus on higher-value activity.
Sustainable cloud operations
Selecting an energy-efficient Azure region and designing event-driven integration flows reduces compute waste, lowers emissions, and decreases ongoing operational cost.
Controlled integration across systems
The ISL enforces consistent integration patterns across Emerald’s existing platforms and newly acquired publishers, improving data quality and operational reliability.
Scalable foundation for future acquisitions
The platform is now reused to onboard additional publishers, supporting Emerald’s growth strategy without increasing environmental or operational overhead.
Emerald Publishing is one of the world’s leading digital-first publishers, commissioning, curating and showcasing research that can make a real difference. We work with thousands of universities and business schools across the world to share knowledge and provoke the kind of debate that leads to positive change. As a Times Top 50 Employer for Gender Equality 2025 and one of the Top 50 Inspiring Workplaces in the UK and Ireland for 2025, we’re passionate about people and doing things differently.
Solidsoft Reply is a leading technology company creating award-winning solutions utilising the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. As a globally acclaimed Microsoft AI Cloud Solutions Partner, we specialise in GS1 traceability systems worldwide, ensuring the authenticity, legality and safety of our customers’ products and services.
Valorem Reply, part of the Reply Group, is an award-winning digital transformation firm focused on delivering data-driven enterprise, IT modernization, customer experience, product transformation and digital workplace. Through the expertise of our people and power of Microsoft technologies, we provide hyper-scale and agile delivery of unique digital business services, strategic business models and design-led user experiences. Our innovative strategies and solutions securely and rapidly transform the way our clients do business.