- Housing
- Azure cloud
- Microservices modernization
Modernizing a UK Housing Association's Platform with Azure Microservices
How BEEU TECH helped a UK housing association move a legacy monolith to microservices on Azure, automate releases with Azure DevOps and make code reviews and documentation part of everyday engineering.
Our actual experience delivering great tech and talent.
Engagement overview
- Industry
- Affordable housing
- Client location
- United Kingdom
- Duration
- 11 months
- Technologies
- Microsoft Azure PaaS, Azure DevOps, microservices
- Engagement status
- Completed
1. The client
Our client is a UK housing association providing affordable homes for rent and ownership, as well as homes that people can buy outright on the open market.
It works across England, recognizing that the shortage of housing affects people trying to buy a home as well as those who rent.
Its digital services ran on a legacy application that had become hard to scale and maintain, and that depended on third-party APIs.
2. The challenge
A legacy monolith that slowed every release
The application was a single monolith with no serverless cloud architecture behind it. Building and deploying features was cumbersome, releases were manual and code quality varied without a formal review process.
Seven challenges stood in the way.
Legacy architecture
The application was difficult to scale and maintain.
No serverless cloud
There was no serverless cloud architecture for the platform to build on.
Third-party API dependence
The system depended on third-party APIs.
No microservices
Without a microservice architecture, developing and deploying features was cumbersome.
Manual deployments
With no CI/CD pipeline, deployments were manual and release cycles slow.
Inconsistent code quality
Without a formal code review process, code quality varied.
Missing integration tests
Missing integration tests reduced confidence in releases and let more bugs reach production.
The client needed to modernize the platform without taking it offline, and to put the engineering practices in place that would keep it healthy afterwards.
3. The solution
Microservices on Azure, delivered through automated pipelines
BEEU TECH's engineers moved the monolith to a modular microservice architecture one module at a time, refactoring incrementally to avoid downtime.
Azure PaaS gave the new services a consistent cloud foundation, and Azure DevOps pipelines automated build, test and deployment.
Five pillars of the modernization
-
Microservice architecture
Migrated the monolithic application to modular microservices, refactoring one module at a time to avoid downtime.
-
Azure PaaS and reusable APIs
Introduced Azure PaaS services for consistency and reuse, with reusable APIs built into every new feature.
-
Automated CI/CD pipelines
Designed Azure DevOps pipelines with automated build, test and deploy stages, replacing manual deployments.
-
Code quality practices
Made peer code reviews mandatory, with linting, static analysis and automated checks, through Azure DevOps pull request templates and approval workflows.
-
Documentation and training
Wrote developer guidelines and process documentation, and ran training sessions so developers could adopt the new workflows and tools.
4. The business impact
From a manual monolith to automated cloud delivery
The modernization changed how the platform is built, reviewed, tested and released.
Before and after the modernization
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Legacy monolithic application | Modular microservice architecture |
| No serverless cloud architecture | Azure PaaS services |
| Manual deployments | Automated build, test and deploy stages in Azure DevOps |
| No formal code review process | Mandatory peer reviews with linting and static analysis |
| Missing integration tests | An automated test stage in every pipeline |
| Informal processes and onboarding | Developer guidelines, documentation and training |
5. Long-term value
A platform built to keep changing
Splitting the monolith into microservices means each part of the platform can now be changed and deployed on its own.
Automated pipelines, mandatory reviews and shared documentation give the client's developers one consistent way to build and release.
The engagement shows how a careful, module-by-module modernization can move a legacy platform to the cloud, planned from the start to avoid downtime.
6. Technology stack
- Microsoft AzurePaaS cloud services
- Azure DevOpsCI/CD, pull requests and approvals
- MicroservicesModular service architecture
- Reusable APIsShared across new features
BEEU TECH · TECHNOLOGY DELIVERY
Modernize legacy platforms, one service at a time.
Still running a legacy monolith? BEEU TECH engineers move platforms to microservices and automated delivery on Azure, one module at a time.
Build the engineering team your modernization needs.
