Why any application modernization strategy must factor in connectivity from the start
Application modernization, which is primarily focused on transforming legacy on-premise applications into cloud applications, is a high priority for businesses around the world.
A Red Hat survey of IT decision makers, backend developers, and software architects reveals 95% believe application modernization is essential for their organization’s success. Three-quarters (75%) of the companies surveyed have already completed at least small-scale modernization projects. And this progress shows no signs of slowing, with organizations planning to modernize 51% of their applications, on average, in the next year.
Re-architecting vs. migrating applications
There are various approaches businesses can take to application modernization, but the preferred choice appears to be rebuilding and re-architecting legacy systems in a cloud-native environment. This is identified as the top IT modernization initiative for 61% of European companies, according to an IDC infobrief.
The infobrief reveals the three categories up next on organizations’ roadmap for modernizing and migrating to public cloud are:
- Databases / data warehouses / data lakes
- Analytics and big data applications
- Proprietary applications
Enterprises’ preferred approach for each of these apps is to replace the current version with a new, custom, cloud-native application. This approach has a variety of benefits over migrating existing applications to the cloud, not least that cloud-native applications are developed with security and integration in mind.
The IDC report reveals the five most important factors organizations consider when selecting a cloud platform for modernizing their apps are:
- Security and compliance
- Cost effectiveness
- Availability and reliability
- Performance and scalability
- Service offerings and feature
These are all vital considerations in choosing a cloud platform, but there’s something missing from the list. Interconnection capabilities are often overlooked in enterprises’ application modernization efforts, and they have a considerable impact on all these other factors.
Connectivity must be integral to application modernization
Shifting applications to the cloud will inevitably increase data movements to, from, and between cloud environments, so businesses must consider how that data flows.
What’s more, if businesses plan to make use of AI, which is a key driver of application modernization, the volume of data on the move will be vast. Even if their apps aren’t on the scale of ChatGPT (which OpenAI reported was trained on around 45 terabytes of text data back in 2022), any AI-powered application will require a great deal of data. The training and processing for an AI application may occur within one cloud environment, but other apps that feed data into the AI model, or receive outputs from it, are likely to be housed in other clouds.
There are various things to consider what factoring interconnection into an application modernization strategy:
- Speed: Moving applications to the cloud could increase latency and reduce response times, negatively impacting the performance of critical workloads. By using direct connections with short data pathways, businesses can maximize the performance of cloud applications and enhance the user experience.
- Security: Cloud-native applications benefit from the in-built security of cloud environments. But data can still be vulnerable when it’s in transit. By using private, direct routing that bypasses the public Internet, businesses can increase security and protect against cyber-attacks.
- Sovereignty: Businesses are increasingly building apps in sovereign clouds to ensure data is stored within geographic borders. But they also need to control where data goes when it’s in transit, which is virtually impossible using the public Internet. Businesses need private connectivity to route traffic along known pathways, without unpredictable detours along the way.
- Cost: Rebuilding apps in the cloud reduces capital costs. But if businesses aren’t careful it can considerably increase operational expenditure due to the fees associated with data movement. Private connectivity can help businesses reduce the length of data pathways and better control costs.
Effective application modernization requires a parallel focus on connectivity to prevent cost overruns and maximize performance. When enterprises understand the need for seamless, secure, and high-performance interconnection as an integral part of their application modernization strategy, they’ll be headed for success – whichever path they take to the cloud.
To find out more about how businesses are factoring connectivity into application modernization plans, read the IDC infobrief, How connectivity will help enable the top IT trends.