Cloud-native Modernization: Why it is essential to your business

The Essential Ingredients to a Modernization Project

To successfully modernize, you need a well-crafted strategy that includes:

1. Business case and strategy: Define your goals and objectives for cloud-native modernization. When starting or advancing your project, it is essential first to ensure investments are aligned to business goals. Determine and use a return-on-investment (ROI) model to track your progress.
2. Assessment and planning: A well-defined roadmap will keep your modernization project on track. Identify minimum viable products (MVPs) and pilot sites (such as specific factories) and users and analyze the expected impact of all the changes you are going to make. Unlike the waterfall model, where tasks are sequential, agile development involves parallel workstreams. Therefore, a solid understanding of what needs to change and how it will change is crucial.
3. Security and compliance: Prioritize security and compliance from the start. As data breaches and compliance issues become more prevalent – among other risks related to distributed cloud-native architecture – safeguarding your digital assets during and after your modernization project is non-negotiable. Ensure your cloud-native modernization efforts adhere to industry standards and comply with regulations. Understand how your Cloud Service Provider security ecosystem complements yours, and keep all stakeholders up to date in this regard.
4. Talent transformation: Your workforce plays a significant role in the success of your modernization project. To manage your modernized infrastructure and applications effectively, you need to have the right people with the right skills in place. Working with an experienced managed service provider (MSP) like NTT DATA gives you instant access to a range of cloud skills as well as skills and experience in the “bigger picture”, including data centers and networks.
5. Technology and architectural choices: Serverless or containers? Public or private cloud? Modernization involves making crucial decisions about your technology stack and architecture – and your cloud provider. Make crucial decisions about technology stack, architecture, and cloud provider. Choose wisely based on scalability, performance, and operational efficiency. This is another area where a Managed Cloud Service Provider ca help.
6. Operating model: A modern operating model is essential. Embrace agile methodologies, DevSecOps practices, and FinOps to streamline processes and foster innovation.
7. Leadership and stakeholder buy-in: Lack of support from leadership can lead to project failures or delays, so it’s vital to secure their commitment early on.
8. Ecosystem management: Develop a change-management strategy that can adapt to evolving technology and business needs. Implement observability and site-reliability practices to maintain the performance of your cloud-native stack.