Modernizing Your Applications for the Cloud

Getting started modernizing your applications

Not every enterprise is at a point where modernizing makes sense—or is even advisable.

For companies who are ready to make the journey, app innovation has the power to accentuate an organization’s strengths and drive efficiency in how their unique value is delivered. As such, it’s intrinsically tied to that company’s innovative maturity and business goals.

Before starting down the path of modernization, there are two things to consider: technical ability and internal culture.

1. Technical ability

App modernization involves recoding large segments of the software that powers the application.

Sometimes this means cracking open an application to find and improve functions an enterprise relies on while discarding the rest. Other times, it means converting the language of the software itself.

Beyond the ability to transform the actual guts of an application, enterprise IT departments also need to be able to work comfortably and effectively within cloud platforms.

This often means rethinking current pipelines and workflows, like:

• Rethinking build/test/deploy best practices
• Becoming more agile
• Version and code branching
• Automating infrastructure as code
• Adopting test automation and continuous delivery

While this leap can greatly accelerate development and deployment, it comes with a learning curve.

For those enterprises without the technical knowledge in-house, the modernization process will take investment in either the resources necessary or in a third-party with the experience to offer guidance throughout the process.

2. Internal culture

If technical ability is about the nuts and bolts of app modernization, internal culture is about an enterprise’s readiness in the offices outside of IT.

Some enterprises have a clear understanding of the need to modernize their application portfolio and are eager to get the process rolling. Others have areas within the building that need to be sold on making the investment.

In this situation, a case needs to be made within the enterprise that the efficiencies in workflows, reduced development times, and quicker speed to market offered by modernized applications will more than offset the cost of the process itself.

Any push up the chain for modernization should also include a clear understanding of the desired outcome of the process, whether that outcome is to remain competitive or take the lead in disrupting the market.

While every enterprise has different needs—and those needs ultimately require unique solutions—the process of app modernization generally breaks down into these four steps:

1. Assessment
2. Modernization
3. Migration
4. Optimization

Let’s dive into what each of these steps looks like.

1. Assessment

Once an enterprise has decided to invest in app modernization, the first step is an audit of every app within its portfolio.

This audit helps identify those applications that are critical for the enterprise as well as those that would benefit from modernization. It also highlights applications that should be sunsetted and, in many cases, reveals applications the enterprise didn’t realize were running on its infrastructure.

For those applications deemed worthy of modernization, there are different ways they can be updated.

2. Modernization

Depending on the need of the enterprise, the modernization process can vary.
If you are working with a third party on the process, you’ll likely receive a clear blueprint on which apps should be modernized first, how they should be updated, and the best way to migrate them to the cloud.

If you choose to tackle the job on your own, however, there is the additional challenge of sifting through the sheer number of cloud-native technologies at your disposal. Many of these technologies offer the same benefits, which means deciding which ones to use should come down to:

• What is the value (cost, business case, benefits)?
• Is the tech useful?
• Do we have the right talent to operate the tech?

3. Migration

If the application will not be refactored but simply hosted on the cloud versus another on-premises datacenter, then migration is essentially a lift and shift exercise. For refactored apps, tools are implemented to make the migration seamless.

The migration process is also when all the underlying networking configuration is shored up so the final changeover happens without a hitch.

4. Optimization

Efficiency optimization ensures apps are taking full advantage of the cloud’s operational performance lift with little to no change to an application’s features, functions, or services.

Secondarily, continuous improvement efforts that result in small enhancements to how the application is designed, that address single points of failure, or that adopt the cloud platform’s native services can add additional performance gains.