Building Future-Ready Digital Immune Systems
Gartner expects that by 2025, organizations that invest in building digital immunity will increase customer satisfaction by decreasing downtime by 80%. Heavy lifters in any enterprise for building future ready Digital Immune Systems are reducing Open-Source Risk, Robust Cloud Migration Road Maps, Greater Software engineering & efficiency for development teams & processes, Faster & Safer Modernization Strategies & Software Knowledge transitions in modern scenarios.
Are you a 'Disruptor' or impacted by 'Disruption'? Leaders are always disruptors, while unprepared organizations get disrupted. Disruptors engage with technology in more ways than one, preparing the organization for continuous transformation. One of the oft-repeated terms today is 'Digital Transformation.' Still, a closer look reveals that most digital transformations fail to secure intended outcomes as they need a predictable roadmap.
Does your organization's digital arsenal have enough firepower to demolish a nexus of challenges and always stay relevant to market realities?
Putting these pertinent questions in the backdrop, Business World, in collaboration with CAST Software, recently conducted a CIO Leadership Roundtable on "Building Future-Ready Digital Immune Systems" with leading CIOs and IT decision-makers from the industry. Hoshie Ghaswalla of Business World moderated the discussion.
SETTING THE TONE AND CONTEXT
Giving an overall perspective, Hoshie Ghaswalla highlighted the ground-zero dynamics regarding cloud migrations. For instance, less than 40% of cloud migrations succeed using subjective, manual survey-based readiness assessments. On average, developers spend only 5% of their time writing new code, 20% modifying the legacy code, and up to 60% understanding the existing code. Organizations can gain an immediate 20% cost savings through application portfolio rationalization. Over 90% of organizations use open-source components within their Software which introduces security, legal, and obsolescence risks.
With this backdrop, it's time to call on the experts and hear how an organization can build digital immune systems that make cloud migrations and IT modernization seamless.
Kalyan Sridhar, MD & Country Manager, India and ASEAN, CAST Software, started by saying:
Software today is pervasive. It is incredibly complex and pivotal to how the organization works, but it is increasingly difficult to manage and understand the software. And this eventuality is leading to higher failure rates.
To curb such failures from getting higher in this ever-changing world, what needs to also be accounted for, apart from the ‘hop onto the cloud’ strategy, is for organizations to fathom and measure aspects around Application Knowledge Discovery and Documentation. We like it or not, they form the core for organizations to have a competitive edge and helps them stay relevant. These will eventually also lead them to take further steps in modernizing some of their legacy IT applications, which over the years, would have likely become more of a baggage to the business, than adding any value to their current context.
We basically will need a holistic approach to modernization. By building a digital immune system, we will be able to manifest friction-free migration and modernization outcomes.
Let's try decoding some of these crucial questions and issues by hearing the thoughts of the tech decision-makers from the industry.
"The software environment today is indeed complex. But at the same time, it's an operational reality, and it takes a lot of skill in designing and architecting platforms for stability, scalability, speed, and information security. We emphasise stability and resiliency when we approach app modernisation rather than going by the latest cool trend in tech. My agenda is stability and five-nines uptime and always available platforms. So, that’s our approach towards designing and architecting modernisation projects", says Milind Nagnur, President & CTO, Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Concurring with this thought, Manish Kishore, Global Head-IT, Wockhardt, avers that "Any migration, particularly the cloud apps, has its share of challenges. The problem comes when legacy and modern apps intersect. So, risk and impact assessment are critical to iron out frictions. All stakeholders will have to come in concert and do due diligence from their point of view. The impact of such an exercise will facilitate a robust migration pathway, and one more point is many end up doing over customization to the point that is not needed.
When we talk about migrating to the cloud, it's all about modernization, and organizations have different approaches and not necessarily a tested and standard methods. Putting this thought in perspective, Ashok Faujdar, Head – of SAP & IT Applications, Ceat Ltd, says, "What we are doing from this digital immunity perspective is that how do we use a standard platform - a low code platform and make it a standard template for integrations with all major applications. Our approach is moving away from corrective to more predictive and preventive. This makes for more resilient systems and applications.”
Kiran Belsekar, SVP, CISO & IT Governance, Aegon Life Insurance Company Ltd, agree that challenges are rife with any IT modernisation. Organisations must find ways to mitigate friction and unintended outcomes. Aegon Life is driving the next wave of insurance using technology through three tenets – Data – Analytics-driven customer acquisition, Tech – Cloud-native API-driven technology, so growth is never a hurdle and Partnerships – Ecosystems or innovations in partnerships that create faster and more flexible launch mechanisms and more contextual propositions to customers.”
Udit Pahwa, CIO, who has held several IT transformation roles in leading enterprises, touches on a significant point. He agrees with the very plural nature of IT environments today and the legacy baggage that has accrued over the years, both in terms of software, services, and hardware.
He says, "I agree many cloud migrations fail because it does not sync with the existing IT landscape; since knowledge of the past technology topology is seldom harnessed. The lack of documentation is the biggest contributor towards failure rates. So, in my opinion, a well documented approach and thorough due diligence in mapping the existing landscape, will help manifest an IT organization that is relevant and future-ready."
Venkatesh Subramaniam, Head IT Applications, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company, says, "We have been building the digital platforms for the customers in multiple technologies, but the core system has been same for decades, and there is no substitute for that core system, and it has got its own limitations. We can move all the applications to the cloud except our core system. Hence whenever we touch a code, we need to check its impact on core and all the other areas and how it would be tackled. We don't get time for a complete analysis. Hence balancing the new age business needs at the quickest possible TAT, while constantly planning migration of old platform is the biggest challenge in today’s scenario for tech teams"
Ashish Ranjan, CDO, NBC Bearings says, "The challenges associated with following a structured process, documentation towards digital immune systems have existed in any organization, It's important to identify and accept those challenges and take steps to mitigate it. Documentation has always been a winning element in any transformation and sustainable deployment as it ensures business continuity. The documentation discipline is a great pivot. The digital immune system is essentially a toolkit that discovers what works and what does not and gives a direction to modernize and thrive on business realities. Imbibe Digital Immunity for Business Continuity should be the mantra of practitioners"
THE WAY FORWARD
The fundamental questions discussed unpacked a range of modernizations pangs enterprises are facing today, despite heavy spending on the cloud. One in every three organizations needs to realize its benefits. More than 33% of organizations have seen no or slight improvement in organizational effectiveness after cloud adoption. Cloud migration is a complex and costly affair. So how do you avoid a cloud Strategy failure?
The thoughts that emerged are diverse. One significant impediment contributing to failure is the need for more documentation of the existing IT setup. And that leads to a very valid question. The software knows more about the organization than the individual. They need the discovery to reuse the legacy intelligently and take a strategic approach to modernization than a tactical one. At the same time, they need to be grounded in seamlessly integrating or embedding Open Source in the larger scheme of things.
Summing up the key takeaways from the session, Kalyan aptly concluded the discussion by saying, "What emerges at the end is that we need an effective and efficient risk mitigation plan. A proactive application assessment template is vital for seamless cloud migrations. What do you think should go in the cloud, and what remains on the premise?
By the same token, legacy application discovery and documentation, application modernization and/or consolidation to create new business value from the existing application(s) are not only very significant, but they also become critical aspects to any organization’s growth strategy.
The third quintessential aspect is to handle the burgeoning challenges around Open-Source Safety, IP and License risks across the entire organization’s application portfolio – more within a centralized control-tower platform that could help their businesses gain real-time visibility and confidence. In reality, despite open-source code helping organizations lower costs and reduce time to market, it often leads to a disorderly style of development because contributors could continue to add and improve it all the time, and before you know, it starts to become vulnerable for attackers to carry out nasty activities, resulting in organizations facing significant reputational impact, lower market valuation and loss of Intellectual Property coupled with monetary losses.
Finally, we also have the hottest and most differentiating facet that has gained a lot of momentum across the globe – Green IT. Building Green software that is efficient, sustainable and friendly for the environment is the absolute way forward for any organization’s growth. Understanding Software deficiencies from an application code & development perspective and to increase their operational efficiency, will continue to have a tremendous positive effect. It helps organizations reduce their use of energy and protect the environment in an enormous manner.
In essence, a digital immune system is like the heart and soul of your technology backbone, paving the way for you to decode vulnerabilities, identify technical debt and risk, and translate those into performing assets.
The panacea for all these lies in building a robust digital immune system that creates well-rounded leverage to take in all these transformation pangs and ushers in a friction-free digital transformation.
_20240705193225_original_image_35.webp)
