Application modernisation initiatives have prompted the growth of platform services, which enable application development and containerised delivery via Kubernetes.
The services and tools bring the promise of automation agilities necessary to support advanced software architectures, including container orchestration, event-driven microservices, and serverless computing.
Application modernisation and containerised apps
Such solutions, typically delivered in partnership with third-party IT service providers, are all part of a broader DevOps strategy for modernising apps and optimising operations while abstracting infrastructure configuration complexities to move apps into production more easily. Containerised apps are important for their ability to support a self-service mindset. Containers are more easily portable between distributed multi-cloud environments and help enterprises remain competitive by helping improve the customer experience.
The leading drivers of containers and Kubernetes orchestration includes cost reduction and improved efficiency in hardware and around operations. Enterprises are also looking to establish a cloud foundation which shores up the infrastructure demands of new products and services. Enterprises additionally want to improve customer’s experience, enable intelligent automation, and ensure a strong cybersecurity defence.
There are barriers on the road to containerisation
Companies’ ultimate objective is to establish a cloud infrastructure which serves as a highly scalable and elastic platform. This platform will be intelligent enough to support cognitive services alongside other sets of disruptive capabilities to address increased demands placed on IT operations and developers. But digital transformation comes with its own set of challenges. There are barriers on the road to containerisation and cloud migration. While cloud services are essential for keeping businesses running with improved efficiency, IT solutions are not always optimised to support the agility necessary for frictionless app deployment and operational efficiencies.
For example, cybersecurity is very complex and becoming more challenging every day. Unified monitoring is still out of reach, based on difficulties in integrating new observability offerings which are not compatible with traditional monitoring tools. Hidden costs around cloud hosting and high-productivity services are common, for example unanticipated expenditures such as storage or fees between regions. Companies are realising the need to set up dedicated teams solely devoted to managing cost controls.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataExpense and security
In general, undertaking modernisation projects can be expensive and require a long-term mindset. Security remains a serious barrier to application modernisation and achieving executive buy-in.
Container adoption has introduced an increasingly diverse and distributed IT portfolio, a scenario that can become problematic in operations’ ability to gain visibility into security vulnerabilities, application and system performance, and cost efficiency across multiple clusters and distributions. New application architectures, increased use of APIs, and open-source software (OSS) further increase the threat of software supply chain attacks. Platform vendors have not always been able to provide adequate tools which address DevOps and DevSecOps models.
Moreover, moving workloads to the public cloud brings with it new levels of expertise requirements for enterprises to ensure the safeguarding of data to meet regulatory requirements and corporate mandates. As with other areas of emerging DevOps technologies, there is a growing movement to reskill or upskill current IT professionals to take on these new challenges, particularly in cloud security.
Application modernisation is an unstoppable trend
It is vital for enterprises to choose application platforms that support not only Kubernetes, but an open-source culture as a whole, versus a proprietary software approach. This ensures less dependency on a single vendor while having increased flexibility to move and integrate applications across a widely distributed cloud environment.
OSS services also tend to cater to more professional developers who demand a greater amount of access to code to ensure the flexibility necessary to create and customise sophisticated applications. The industry’s ability to rally IT professionals and developers as well as technology providers (many of which are archrivals) all for the common good of global technology advancements via OSS further illustrates the importance of shared knowledge and shared experiences with unfamiliar technologies.
Enterprise developers tackling new projects rely heavily on OSS to explore new methodologies and receive invaluable help from vibrant and collaborative developer communities.
Ultimately, application modernisation is an unstoppable trend: it will take time to take hold in an inertia-driven environment such as enterprise IT, but the cost of not going ahead with digital transformation is too high: application modernisation has many advantages: increased competitiveness above all, efficiencies and greater customer satisfaction which is the ultimate driver for businesses.
