The journey to Cloud isn’t always straight up

Cloud has helped accelerate and - some might argue - lay the groundwork for digital transformation. Key transformation drivers for organizations included enhanced customer experience through innovation - and business agility to achieve business growth. Some of the immediate benefits of moving to the Cloud were scalability, reliability, cost efficiency, and faster time to market. Cloud computing is now becoming a foundation for digital business - and therefore CTOs and CXOs are now mandating moving to Cloud as a major part of their IT strategies.

Custom(er) Cloud journeys - are you building Cloud-native applications?

The odyssey of moving to Cloud is now at a stage where most organizations have already built - or are in the process of building or migrating - strategic business applications that support topline growth into Cloud. Crafting these business capabilities requires a big shift in the application development and management lifecycle - where design thinking, product-based development, DevOps, and cultural transformation are just a few of the key ingredients for success.

Development of Cloud-native applications utilizing Cloud computing architectures, microservices, containerization, API management stacks, and integrated continuous delivery with DevOps are core technology trends here. And harnessing these trends to craft your own custom Cloud strategy for your application landscape - and business as a whole - is critical in continuing to offer the unique experiences your customers desire.

For example, Capgemini's Digital Cloud Platform for Restaurants business is hosted on Amazon Web Services and provides a comprehensive collection of Cloud-native, built-in accelerators for crafting an end-to-end restaurant experience.

What challenges can you expect in moving your core applications to Cloud?

As enterprise adoption of Cloud rises, core business applications are an essential focus area - but migrating them to Cloud has many challenges. Over the years, the demand for customization, the duplication of business processes across departments, changing regulations, evolving IT strategies, and the creation of complex integration points have all added complexity.

Successfully migrating these applications to Cloud requires a clear strategy that outlines your motivations, proper business case justifications, and desired business outcomes. Cloud Modernization with ADMnext ensures your application landscape is geared to support and enables you to harness the full power of Cloud for comprehensive IT, digital, and data-driven business transformation. Together with Capgemini's eAPM (economic Application Portfolio Management), Cloud Modernization with ADMnext can help you reach your Cloud migration ambitions. eAPM offers you a comprehensive Cloud assessment and an AI-based, data-driven decision-making framework that delivers a solid foundation that you can base your Cloud strategy upon.

New Cloud adoption models to integrate into your Cloud strategy: Hybrid, container, multi-Cloud, and Edge

Some of the most common risks associated with moving to Cloud are found around data security, compliance, vendor lock-in, and low latency for connected devices (IoT). Here are a few models that can help you mitigate risk:

Hybrid Cloud environment: To reduce risks surrounding data security, organizations are adopting hybrid Cloud environments where non-sensitive data is hosted in a public Cloud, while a private Cloud provides the necessary capabilities to protect sensitive data.

Container technology: These are self-contained technology boxes with software products and applications that are packaged with all the needed infrastructure elements, which can be deployed, scaled, and updated across any Cloud vendor.

Multi-Cloud strategy: Organizations are adopting multi-Cloud strategies to adhere to regulatory requirements, offer unique services, and get the best of Cloud services across application workloads. Adopting architecture principles such as loosely coupled, application portability that uses open standards and a clear exit strategy will help to avoid vendor lock-in. Cloud vendors are also making provisions to run applications across the entire Cloud platform.

Edge computing: With growing demand for connected devices that require local processing with low latency, Edge computing is becoming more and more relevant in solving core business challenges.

To learn more about these models, check out Capgemini's TechnoVision 2022 for tech implementation guidance with route maps around emerging trends and innovations.

Are you geared up to build your next-gen ADM services?

Going forward, managing your application portfolio will require the right skills, right collaboration tools, and new communication channels, as technology will continue to evolve rapidly with increased adoption by organizations. Use of automation and machine augmented services are already on the rise in supporting this complex Cloud environment. And Cloud Modernization with ADMnext can help you meet all your Cloud strategy goals - from cost reductions to a fully future-ready applications portfolio.

In our next post, we'll dive deeper into strategies for better supporting your applications by moving from and on-premises hosting to Cloud.

In the meantime, to learn more about Cloud Modernization with ADMnext, Capgemini's overall ADMnext offering, and how you can ensure that your Cloud strategy is a success, contact me here.

"This blog is authored by Darshan Bhatkar, Enterprise Integration Architect at Capgemini"