Lloyds Banking Group lines up Microsoft Azure as part of £3 billion tech splurge

Group becomes the world’s largest financial services firm to hand over desktop and device management to Microsoft’s cloud

Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has partnered with Microsoft to accelerate the group’s digital transformation as part of a multibillion-pound tech investment pledge.

The strategic partnership will see the tech giant develop a “modern digital workplace” for the group, which has committed to investing £3 billion in technology to bring its offerings up to speed with agile challenger banks like Monzo and Revolut.

Under the partnership, LBG will get the full force of Microsoft Managed Desktop: Office 365 productivity tools, Microsoft-managed security and feature updates, and a cloud-based “advanced device solution” to support the group’s currency management.

All of this will be supplemented by a cloudy-dose of Azure to help the group’s business agility and scalability and to provide a refreshed customer offering in line with rising consumer demands.

LBG has worked with Microsoft since 2017 to build, test and evaluate the scale, security and agility requirements for Microsoft Managed Desktop and becomes the world’s largest financial services firm to deploy the technology, which is designed to ease the burden of traditional IT admin roles by letting Microsoft handle updates, patches, security, and configuration changes via the cloud.

John Chambers, group CIO at Lloyds Banking Group, commented: “As part of our digital transformation we’re creating a modern digital workplace and I am really excited about the impact of this new technology.”

“A core principle of Microsoft Managed Desktop is the idea that an evolved approach can give colleagues fantastic experiences on workplace devices that stay current and secure with Microsoft 365,” he added.

Cindy Rose, CEO of Microsoft UK, commented: “Using the Microsoft cloud, employees can have the confidence that they have the best tools at hand to deliver an exceptional customer experience and we look forward to continuing our work to ensure Lloyds Banking Group maintains its position as a truly world-class digital bank.”