Ferry Bookings
Direct Ferries
TL;DR
Case study detailing how Nerds Computing augmented a UK-based global ferry comparison & booking platform to accelerate modernization of its legacy system into a cloud-native, microservices-ready architecture with zero-downtime cutovers and continuous feature delivery.
About the Client
UK-based global ferry comparison & booking platform that aggregates schedules, prices and tickets from 250+ ferry operators across 4,000+ routes worldwide. Users compare sailings and book across major corridors in Europe (UK, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany), North Africa (Morocco, Algeria), Asia (China, Russia, Cambodia, Hong Kong) and the Americas (USA, Canada, Peru, Dominican Republic). For partners, the company provides a REST API and white-label solutions to embed ferry search and ticketing in third-party journeys.
Challenge & Objectives
Modernization was in motion but slowed by limited engineering capacity and a long-lived monolith, so we set out to accelerate delivery and new feature development by adopting the latest stack and incrementally extracting microservices while maintaining zero downtime and uninterrupted BAU releases to improve scalability, reliability, and time-to-market with a clear path to lower TCO.
With modernization underway yet capacity-constrained around a mature monolith, we focused on speeding up the roadmap and shipping new customer features continuously while completing the move to a modern stack and microservices via step-by-step extraction, ensuring no downtime and stronger foundations for scale and resilience at lower cost.
Technical Solution
The platform was already organized around clear business domains, and we built on those boundaries to evolve domain services that could operate independently without disrupting day-to-day delivery.
To support the ongoing modernization, we added a dedicated squad as an extension of the client's engineering team, working side by side with their developers and aligning on workflows, code standards, and architecture decisions to maintain continuity. Continuous knowledge transfer—through pairing, shared documentation, and joint reviews—kept the initiative moving smoothly while the product roadmap stayed on track.
- Extract monolithic business logic into domain-aligned, scalable microservices.
- Move workloads to modern cloud infrastructure with container orchestration.
- Deliver new customer features continuously throughout the transition.
Results & Impact
Without interrupting day-to-day operations, key domains were migrated from the monolith into cloud-based microservices. Delivery evolved to continuous micro-deployments, enabling a more predictable cadence and quicker iteration.
“Over the past three years, Nerds has been an indispensable part of our team. From helping us quickly resource new teams to upskilling and mentoring our existing developers, they have consistently delivered. They are an incredibly reliable partner and are highly regarded across our business”
“Daniel would be an asset to any organization, and I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again in the future.”