How to Transform the Management and Modernization of Your Infrastructure to Maximize Business Outcomes
Transformation and modernization are top of mind issues for enterprise IT executives, and while apps get the headlines, it’s impossible to deliver outcomes without starting with infrastructure.
Transformation and modernization are top-of-mind issues for every enterprise IT executive. But whether it's replatforming legacy applications or migrating them to the cloud, enterprise IT leaders routinely suffer from run-away costs, unforeseen complications, and out-of-control environments on the other side of the modernization process.
Yet, as an enterprise IT leader you have little choice but to forge ahead. The outcomes your business counterparts demand, coupled with the ever increasing risks incumbent with legacy environments, mean that you need to find a way to transform and modernize your tech stack.
The irony is that while much of the focus during modernization and transformation efforts is on the application, the real source of challenges is often not the application at all.
What if the real issue is that you're not paying enough attention to the unsung hero — and liability, if you don't address it: your infrastructure.
I'll even go so far as to say that you will never truly succeed at modernizing and transforming your IT application stack — nor avoid the crazy, unexpected costs, the lack-of-control challenges, or the unforeseen performance issues — until you have first modernized and transformed your infrastructure.
The question that holds enterprise leaders back is understanding what infrastructure modernization really means, and how to do it amid all the other pressures and constraints you face.
The good news is that it is possible to free your applications from their legacy shackles and rapidly (and cost effectively) transform your infrastructure by changing the way you look at infrastructure management in the first place.
You need to move past looking at it as a moribund practice akin to maintaining your plumbing or flossing your teeth. Rather than avoiding and minimizing it, you need to see it as the gateway to the visibility, transparency, and governance you need.
The essential missing element is the smart utilization of infrastructure data. It's why I call this approach smart infrastructure management — and it will change how you approach your modernization and transformation efforts.
Why You've Skipped Over — and Then Struggled With — Infrastructure Modernization
"Hey, Charlie. Can I talk with you?"
Her name was Donna, and as she spoke, these words sent a shiver down my spine. At the time, I was running IT Operations for a $1 Billion healthcare firm, she was the head of business operations — and she was never happy.
We had built a well-oiled machine that just ran. All the time. Without fail (well, almost!). But she would always find the smallest thing to nitpick. Without fail. What frustrated me most was that this was a wildly different situation than when I had arrived two years earlier. At that time, our infrastructure was failing several times a day and our singular goal was to finish each day without a fire burning out of control.
But as we modernized our infrastructure and stabilized our operations, it did what it's supposed to do: it faded into the background.
The full research is available courtesy of Galileo Suite. Click here to download it.