Application modernization has been all the rage for years, but we’ve seen firsthand here at VMware Tanzu Labs that most organizations struggle to achieve the outcomes they initially hoped for. Modernization complexity goes far beyond technology, especially within larger organizations that contain dozens of business units, many stakeholders, and multiple—sometimes conflicting—priorities.
Many of the organizations we work with have experienced these common roadblocks:
-
They don’t have enough people with the necessary skills and are constantly buying more technology to try to keep up with business demand.
-
They’ve been working to move to the cloud for a while but aren’t moving quickly enough.
-
They’re moving to a public cloud, but their costs aren’t going down.
In our new white paper The Foolproof Guide to Modernizing Your Portfolio, we delve into the fundamentals of a portfolio modernization strategy and outline the tools and processes necessary for success. We believe there are a few critical elements behind a successful modernization strategy:
-
The symbiotic relationship between people, process, and technology
-
The importance of building an automated decisioning framework of “what goes where”
-
A huge mindset shift for app modernization, i.e., it’s not one and done!
In the white paper, we share the tried-and-true methods that we use in our Rapid Portfolio Modernization engagements to help organizations achieve their modernization outcomes in weeks and months instead of years.
People, process, and technology
When planning a modernization initiative, most people tend to focus solely on the technical implications. However, modernization requires the orchestration of people, process, and technology to be successful.
Myriad factors fall under each of these three pillars. For example, the way that you structure your organization, bolster your team’s culture, and motivate through employee compensation all fall under the “people” pillar, but they are important factors to consider in addition to selecting the types of technology and processes you’ll use. In the white paper, we delve into the factors within each pillar that you’ll need to keep in mind as you build your modernization plan.
Building a decisioning framework
One of the reasons that portfolio modernization is so difficult is because of the sheer volume of applications that need to be handled. As a result, we believe that it’s essential to build an automated decisioning framework to identify the next steps for each of your apps, whether that’s refactoring, replatforming, rehosting, retiring, or retaining them (the Five R’s). Taking the manual grunt work out of your modernization initiative is one of the best ways to realize outcomes faster.
To build a scalable modernization plan, we use an automated “funnel” technique to determine the best course of action for each app while considering important technical factors, business factors, and organizational factors. This model serves as a compass for which apps to modernize, how they should be modernized, and where they should land.
In most cases, the higher the business value of an application, the greater potential benefit there is to undergoing more change. By refactoring primarily business-critical and high-value apps, you can maximize your team’s precious time while prioritizing the applications that have the most to gain from more flexible architectures and scalable infrastructure. However, applications that remain unchanged for long periods of time and don’t hinder your company’s ability to innovate don’t need to be rewritten. When the goal is to increase IT efficiencies and decrease IT costs for apps requiring infrequent updates, you’ll be better off rehosting or replatforming these applications.
Mindset shift
There is a significant mindset shift required for a successful portfolio modernization initiative. Some customers think that moving to the cloud means it’s “their mess for less,” and others view modernization as a project, when in reality, it’s a competency that must be continuously invested in. Because code becomes legacy the moment it’s deployed, the opportunity to modernize is ongoing; it doesn’t end.
Also, it’s important to recognize that making meaningful progress modernizing hundreds or thousands of existing applications will take a ton of time and effort. Changes happen incrementally; modernization often starts small and grows rapidly. It’s important to realize this, set expectations appropriately, and take a systematic approach. You can even establish visible intermediate milestones to maintain momentum.
Get started
Clearly, portfolio modernization is a massive undertaking that’s chock-full of complexity. We know how difficult it can be to see results, whether you’re orchestrating the relationship between people, process, and technology; building a robust decisioning framework; or implementing a mindset shift. For more insight into the fundamentals of portfolio modernization, check out our new white paper The Foolproof Guide to Modernization.
Need help with executing your own portfolio modernization strategy? Learn about how you can get support through a Rapid Portfolio Modernization engagement.
About the Author
More Content by Victoria Wright
