Modernize to survive

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The race for technological modernization is now a race for survival. That's why, according to a new study from Infosys, 70-90% of the legacy systems that exist today will be modernized within five years.

However, despite the urgency, companies are avoiding replacement tactics and instead opting for incremental modernization. The reasons range from the risk and cost of the "big bang" implementation, to its outdated image, to the inability to eliminate core legacy applications. On the other hand, the relatively low cost and near-zero disruption of incremental modernization, and its assurance of business continuity, weigh heavily in its favour.

Furthermore, this approach aligns well with the four essential elements of a comprehensive IT modernization program: a data-driven business, hybrid cloud adoption, a focus on user experience and connections. through APIs.

Modernization makes the business data-driven

A data-driven business is precisely that; it's a company that integrates rich data to drive day-to-day business processes, operations, and decisions, and improves them over time.

Data-driven organizations combine digital technologies such as robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud, and analytics to automate the business, anticipate customer needs, predict and react to events in real time, innovate and personalize products, design new business models and learn continuously. For example, a data-driven business can use data to uncover inefficient processes, identify alternatives, and even automate routine, rules-based ones. Moreover, by introducing machine learning, it can trigger a continuous cycle of learning and improvement.

Unfortunately, the majority of organizations are far from being data-driven. The reasons are familiar; namely, legacy systems, multiple technology stacks, outdated processes, and data silos that are inefficient, rigid, slow, and opaque — in other words, contrary to the principles of a data-driven business.

Modernization mitigates these challenges to a large extent. Simplifying monolithic, interdependent systems using platform-based components and open-source software solutions improves agility, adaptability, and flexibility; In addition, a component-based system is perfect for gradual modernization.

Microservices, APIs (application programming interfaces), and webhooks enable data sharing across the enterprise (along with AI, RPA, analytics, and other solutions) to enable direct processing, and with the external ecosystem to improve innovation and business decisions. In fact, respondents to the aforementioned research survey ranked APIs, AI, and microservices as the top drivers of business modernization, second only to data and analytics.

Last, but not least, modernization prepares the organization for the cloud.

Modernization and the cloud need each other

Modernization and the cloud are so intertwined that it's hard to imagine one without the other. Modernization makes enterprise systems cloud-ready, so they can work with various models as a service and also with cloud-native applications. In turn, the cloud has been the biggest accelerator of digital transformation and the sole reason for the success of remote working during the pandemic.

Companies continuing their modernization journey should consider hybrid cloud before any other option. The hybrid cloud acts as a bridge between on-premises and cloud infrastructure to accelerate modernization programs.

Combining public and private clouds from multiple vendors, hybrid cloud brings together the benefits of both; namely, the agility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of public cloud, and the control, security, and reliability of private cloud...