BrainBlog for Gigaspaces by Jason English
Let’s face it: modernization is getting long in the tooth.
While modernization only became popular in the last decade or so, enterprises have been conducting legacy modernization and application modernization projects ever since the first RPG and COBOL apps were deployed.
Naturally, no business wants to be left in the dust with obsolete technology, trailing behind nimbler competitors who gain market share and attract customers with more modern, modernized applications.
Modernization is just too critical an endeavor to ignore. But before we embark on a huge application modernization initiative that could consume resources and affect our entire digital estate for the next decade, are we missing something in our definition of modernization?
What has changed about modernization in the past 10 years, and how might our change in perspective over this time update our approach?
Digital transformation driven change
Competitive pressure to continuously deliver needed functionality better, faster, and cheaper hasn’t changed – in fact it’s been the only consistent KPI objective of IT for decades.
Now the playing field has shifted to digital transformation (or DX), which no longer represents incremental improvements – but instead a wholesale reorientation of everything the organization does around technology that meets specific customer needs.
All of the enablers of the digital backbone needed for DX were falling into place – faster software delivery methods, cheaper, faster, and smaller systems, and storage, elastically scalable cloud computing, ever-increasing bandwidth.
But when the pandemic came on the scene, it suddenly exposed just how weak this digital backbone was for many companies. Information workers had to find ways to work from home, teams and partners suddenly had to collaborate remotely, supply chains started getting stretched thin, and customers all expected new on-demand, digital services to meet them where they are.
The hardest part? Since everyone is being forced to transform at the same time, there’s little help in the way of partners or new talent coming on to assist DX initiatives. Nobody expected modernization to take on a DIY ethic ten years ago.
Everyone must figure out how to deliver new services faster on their own – perhaps a Digital Integration Hub (DIH) may come to the rescue…
Read the entire BrainBlog here.
