Nationwide modernises website by moving to Microsoft Azure

The building society, which has more than 16 million members and is the second largest mortgage provider in the UK, wanted to use more cloud technology so it can continue to serve its members effectively and lay the foundations for future innovation. 

It is Nationwide’s first application hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform. 

 Peter Nutton, the website’s Senior Manager, said: “Over time, our website has grown in size and complexity. So, we took the decision to build a new site from the ground up and simplify. We interviewed members on what they wanted from a new website and observed how they used it.” 

Orla Hennessy, who heads up user experience for the website, added: “Up until now, we’ve been making small improvements. But this project gave us the chance to make some bigger changes and our new technology means we can continue to make more improvements over time.” 

To ensure a smooth move to Azure, Nationwide’s in-house engineers, architects and delivery teams partnered with Contino, a transformation consultancy that helps large, heavily regulated enterprises to become fast, agile and competitive. Together they worked to run a series of test scenarios, using the principles of “chaos engineering”, to ensure the website worked effectively and reliably on its new cloud platform.