Payment app scales and innovates with Azure

Mobile payment app Vipps is used by around 2.7 million Norwegians and has become ubiquitous throughout the country. As a result of this growth, Vipps needed to be prepared to scale and innovate its app into a global operation.

Originally launched by savings bank DNB and running on an on-premises infrastructure, the Vipps app grew to over a million users by the end of 2015 and had outstripped all its competitors by 2017. As a result, it was launched as an independent enterprise and was rebuilt on an Azure microservice-based cloud architecture.

Initially, Vipps migrated the app infrastructure to Azure virtual machines, while its data structure was upgraded by migrating to Azure SQL Database. The company also publishes microservices to developers, partners and merchants with Azure API Management.

Azure Notification Hubs is used for push alerts, while the Vipps chat function is supported by Azure Cosmos DB and authentication and access are managed through Azure Active Directory. By November 2017, all of the app’s core services were being hosted in Azure Container Service.

Azure has enabled Vipps to structure the app in such a way that it can accommodate its predicted growth. This is enabling the company to become a digitally native firm that is well placed to compete globally. With Azure, the company has unlimited scalability to meet almost any demand.

Thomas Wold Johansen, Vipps’ Chief Technology Officer, said: “With Azure, we can scale Vipps as it grows and streamline future development, upgrades, and innovation. That allows us to focus less on operations and more on building new services, creating value, and competing effectively.”

Discussing the future of the app and mobile payment more broadly, Vipps CEO Rune Garborg said: “We think mobile payment will be the new normal in Norway within one or two years. Azure is helping us make it possible.”