Enterprise digital transformation that enables businesses to modernize key IT infrastructure will be the key to growth in many sectors. IDC predicts cloud spending will reach $1.35tn by 20271, while the development of generative AI is set to change how technology teams work. Foundry’s 2023 AI Priorities study2 shows that 62% of IT decisionmakers are either using generative AI in software development or plan to within 12 months.
Foundry asked a range of IT leaders and technology experts to provide their insights into how businesses can deliver successful digital transformation that lets enterprises leverage powerful capabilities like generative AI.
Understand the landscape
Peter van Barneveld (Peter van Barneveld | LinkedIn), innovation manager at Dustin, says IT leaders must start by looking at their IT landscape.
“Businesses should initiate their strategy with an assessment of their current IT and digital design landscape” van Barneveld says.
“A clear understanding of the starting point is crucial for defining goals and decision criteria, enabling them to effectively prioritize and execute modernization projects. Emphasizing the need to establish design principles that favor modern applications is essential. These principles, such as ‘user-centric design’ for creating intuitive and user-friendly applications and ‘integrated feedback’ for consistently gathering input, are key drivers in developing modern applications aligned with business objectives.”
Tom Allen, (LinkedIn: Tom Allen) founder of The AI Journal, agrees with that approach, stressing the need for objectives which are ‘clear and measurable’.
He believes these types of programs can improve performance, scalability, cost-efficiency, and user experience.
Allen suggests prioritizing applications based on business or customer impact and suggests an iterative approach to deliver continuous improvement.
In the early stages of the application modernization effort, the strategy should focus on achieving tangible value quickly, says Gene De Libero (@GeneDeLibero) , principal at Digital Mindshare LLC, a business, marketing, customer experience and technology consultancy.
“The modernization plan should focus on quick wins like moving apps to the cloud or adding APIs to integrate new capabilities,” De Libero says. “Regular measurements against KPIs like reduced costs or faster time-to-market can validate that the new approaches positively impact the business. The team can then adjust the plan to ensure modernization continues driving measurable results.”
Dipti Parmar, (@dipTparmar), chief strategist at Dipti Parmar Consulting and co-founder at 99stairs, recommends taking an API-centric approach that will enable IT to easily connect and reuse components for applications.
“An API-centric approach to app modernization is a more inclusive strategy that lets you keep existing applications in place but enables newer web services and cloud-native apps to securely access their functions via APIs.
“This strategy involves more integration than migration and allows for better communication between the front-end and back-end. It also facilitates faster, more comprehensive data exchange between various components of the system, including databases, computer operating systems, VMs and other APIs.”
In addition to an API-centric approach, enterprises would do well to adopt a cloud-first strategy, as well, said David Geer, (@geercom), thought-leader and cybersecurity expert.
“The business must start in the cloud with expertise and experience,” Geer said. “Companies can build cloud-native applications using containers and modern development tools.”
Align with the business
Our experts also strongly believe that it is vital to ensure modernization programs correlate strongly to business priorities.
Kayne McGladrey, (@kaynemcgladrey), senior IEEE member and field CISO atHyperproof, which provides SaaS-based compliance and security operations solutions, says:
“Developing an application modernization strategy requires careful assessment, planning and execution,” McGladrey said. “First, you must understand your business goals and objectives. Only then can you create an aligned business and application roadmap.”
Will Kelly, (@willkelly), a writer focused on DevOps and the cloud, says, the application modernization strategy should be part of a larger endeavor.
“Developing an application modernization strategy that delivers tangible results starts with tying it to an overall digital transformation, modernization, or similar enterprise initiative,” Kelly said. “Such an initiative will drive the assessment and inventory, defining objectives and goals, modernization, and other stages of an overall application modernization strategy.”
Isaac Sacolick, (@nyike), president of StarCIO and author of Digital Trailblazer, advises CIOs to ‘think big’ when setting outcomes.
“App modernizations that start with a narrow technology focus and aim to upgrade legacy systems, address technical debt, migrate to the cloud, improve security, or address other infrastructure risks can easily miss key objectives of improving experiences, workflows, and analytics for end-users. Delivering tangible results in app modernization programs starts by defining a vision, articulating business objectives, and capturing the voice of end-users first to identify the targeted business outcomes up-front,” he says.
Measurement and security
As IT chooses applications, security and privacy must be top considerations, says Scott Schober, (@ScottBVS), president/CEO at Berkeley Varitronics Systems, Inc., which designs and manufactures world-class wireless security, test, safety and cybersecurity products.
“There are also numerous modernization approaches to consider such as rearchitecting, rebuilding and replacing. I spend much of my time providing cyber education,” Schober says, “so I prefer modernized applications that comply with security and data privacy regulations. All these considerations need to be implemented from the ground up with best practices applied.”
And once you’ve began to implement your strategy, it’s important to continue measuring value, says Kieran Gilmurray, (@KieranGilmurray), CEO at Digital Automation and Robotics Limited.
“Developing an application modernization strategy requires careful assessment, planning and execution,” he said. “Once you have implemented any new applications, remember to establish a governance model that helps you assess application value for money to ensure you get tangible results.”
Find out more about how generative AI can support digital transformation on the IBM website.
1IDC Press Release, Worldwide Spending on Public Cloud Services is Forecast to Reach $1.35 Trillion in 2027, According to New IDC Spending Guide, August 2023
2AI Priorities study, October 2023