Corporate IT: Which topics will influence corporate IT this year? Couchbase, provider of a database platform, has four areas.

• The “cloud-first” strategy is accompanied by increasing standardization of the underlying processes.
• The cloud will determine the future of open source and challenge its strong position in business software.
• Security by design as an essential objective will gain in importance.

2021 will mark a turning point in cloud usage as new applications and software will be installed according to “cloud-first.” This also means that technology that works without the cloud is seen as a costly exception. This goes hand in hand with an increasing standardization of the underlying processes in corporate IT. The standards already include microservices and container management systems.

Corporate IT: Implementation Of A Cloud-First Strategy

In 2021 the focus will shift to service meshes. The strength of a microservice architecture is the loose coupling of the modules. At the same time, it is also a significant disadvantage because functions such as monitoring, tracing, and circuit breaking have to be created again in every microservice.

A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer integrated directly into the application and can be used to control how different parts of an application interact with one another. As more companies start using service meshes, they will be just as common. The cloud providers will increasingly influence this – by ensuring that customers use their specific offers, which puts more shackles on companies.

Open Source: The Question Of Monetization

The growth of the cloud giants and IT as a service will challenge the common ideas about open source in 2021. When using open-source software to deliver a service through a cloud provider, the issue of monetization arises. Some software providers are trying to create new license models that apply to everyone except cloud providers. However, this is a clear departure from the generally accepted open source definition, particularly the ban on usage restrictions. Open-source software can then actually no longer be described as open source.

Clever licensing approaches alone will not be enough; rather, the providers must see themselves as service providers when it comes to management, support, and other value chains. The business model is to be innovative – where cloud providers don’t – and offer a better and more differentiated service.

Corporate IT: Security-By-Design Is Mandatory

IT security will remain a dominant topic in corporate IT in 2021 as well. Security must be built into the applications right from the start – by experienced and appropriately trained developers. The provision of security features and technologies only after the developed software will inevitably leave significant gaps. It is all the more critical that companies rethink their approach and prioritize the hiring of trained developers.

In 2021, companies will begin to realize the full potential of edge computing. They will leverage on-device processing to provide faster services to end-users, avoid the risk of network failure, avoid duplicating sensitive data, and make their services more cost-effective.

In this case, the Edge concept replaced by “Edgeless” is. Devices will communicate to run applications without the cloud, with central servers being left out or at most acting as a data archive. As the computing power of the devices increases from generation to generation, edgeless computing will experience growth in which processing can occur anywhere.

Corporate IT: Cloud Determines The Future Of Open Source

“Of course, topics like the cloud or security are on the list of trends pretty much every year. In 2021, however, we will see some significant shifts so that technologies can now exploit their full potential. The cloud, for example, will determine the future of open source and question its strong position in the business software environment,”.

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IT Modernization- The success rate of transformation projects is frightening: studies show that 70 per cent fail. Sales of the largest hyper scalers, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, are increasing and underline the importance of cloud migration. In this dynamic environment, enterprise architects are increasingly moving into focus: With the help of effective IT solutions, they can successfully control and accompany the entire IT modernization path from the current state of the IT landscape to the cloud.

IT Modernization: First, The Inventory Is Taken

The cloud is more than new infrastructure. Simply relocating applications makes little sense and is not necessarily cheaper. The typical problems of architecture – such as the lifecycle or technology risk management of applications – do not disappear with the cloud but become even more critical.

IT Modernization: Three Phases On The Way To The Cloud

Enterprise architects provide the necessary basis for cloud migration. They can use IT solutions to design the entire process: from the first phase of assessing the cloud capability of all applications, through the concrete planning and implementation of the migration, to establishing cloud governance.

In the first phase of transformation projects (IT modernization), a meaningful inventory of all the applications available in the company must be created. For each application, it must be checked which migration strategy should be used:

• Repost: Relocation of applications to the cloud with necessary adjustments to the application (“lift-and-shift”)
• Replat form: Cloud migration with optimization of the infrastructure or relocation to other platforms (“lift-tinker-and-shift”)
• Repurchase: Replacement of an application with a new product – e.g. change from on-premise to SaaS solution (“Move to SaaS”)
• Refactor: Development of applications with cloud-native services: from monoliths to microservices architecture (“Rewrite as Microservices”)
• Retire: Switching off applications that are no longer used (“Get rid of”)
• Retain: Applications are retained and rechecked later (“Do nothing”)

Various approaches can be followed in IT modernization. The private bank Donner & Reichel AG chose a lift-and-shift path on the way to a cloud-native infrastructure: In the complex technology environment of the bank, data silos had emerged over the years through the outsourcing of IT services to large providers and the simultaneous internal development and administration of your services.

Therefore, a cloud migration requires a comprehensive audit, primarily because of the strict controls and requirements. Our tool created a clear picture of the internal and external dependencies and the decision-making basis for shutting down costly on-premise legacy systems. Forty employees from various bank departments use the tool regularly and thus contribute to improved, permanent IT transparency.

The Necessity Of Flexible Planning Of Transformation Projects

Why do so many transformation projects still fail? When planning and implementing migration – in the second phase on the way to the cloud – companies rely on familiar IT road mapping with three to five years of planning periods. However, this turns out to be too inflexible and is not linked to the concrete implementation of initiatives. There is often a lack of consistent monitoring from conception to implementation: Limitations and risks are recognized too late. In autumn 2020, we expanded our EA solution to include the Business Transformation Management (BTM) module, which enables the planning and implementation of transformation projects from today to a freely definable date in the future and the dependencies on the corporate architecture the push of a button Time.

Teams can plan different scenarios independently and check their effects: This collaboration is already known from software codes. Now we offer a solution for collaborative work on the transformation – the GitHub for architecture management.

Ensure Overview, Governance And Speed In The Cloud

Missing information about existing cloud accounts, runaway costs or insufficient allocation of responsibilities: the implementation of the migration and the establishment of continuous cloud governance is part of a successful transformation project. For this third phase of IT modernization, we provide a solution with the Cloud Native Suite to track relevant cloud KPIs, keep an eye on costs and risks or link applications with business capabilities.

The publishing house Griner + Jahre has been using our Cloud Native Suite since 2019, which offers a business context for cloud assets. It enables well-founded decisions regarding a hybrid IT landscape. New transparency was created with the Cloud Intelligence module about the multi-cloud landscapes and enterprise, and cloud architectures were merged. The module also supported the introduction of ServiceNow and the connection of relevant details of the cloud landscape with the ServiceNow CMDB. This created a database for all cloud services and instances that are operated in the cloud. The teams in operational business, the governance and ISMS teams, the solution architects and software developers benefit from this in particular.

Consider Transformation Projects Comprehensively

The cloud offers companies enormous opportunities and risks if the migration is inadequately prepared, planned, and implemented. At this point, enterprise architects can become game changers and master the challenges of digital transformation with the help of future-proof IT solutions.

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Google, Amazon, and Apple have shown the way: The Digitization of companies and value chains is the business model. Control or automate time-consuming internal operating processes centrally via a digital interface, handle the entire procurement process without paperwork or manage machine parks in a single program and, if necessary, mobile: This is how the future should look if companies have their way. This form of digitization is already within reach today. Because what may sound like science fiction to many can be put into practice with modern business software such as SAP.

Reluctant Approach To Digitization

As the corona pandemic has shown once again, such measures are now more necessary than ever to organize businesses entirely from the home office and not to fall behind in the international competition. And yet, the majority of corporations and SMEs continue to complain about slow progress in internal digitization processes.

“The hurdles for the digital transformation process lie elsewhere,”. “What is needed for a successful implementation is not just the software. Internal IT skills and entrepreneurial know-how, for example, are at least as necessary for a successful cost-benefit calculation. The courage to change is an equally important driver. “

Where To Start With Digitization

As good as the digitization of corporate processes sounds, the devil is in the details in theory. Because which specific measures are appropriate for a company and to what extent they should be implemented is a complex cost-benefit calculation that managers and department heads often grapple with in vain. “Creating KPIs and roadmaps for something that you have limited know-how about yourself is a difficult undertaking,”. It is also advisable to take a step back first to see the big picture and the potential for improvement to be recognized before taking the significant steps forward in the direction of digitization. If the optimization potential is correctly quantified, individual measures and their scope can be easily determined.

Communicate The Benefits Of The Transformation Process

Digitization projects are often about much more than just setting up a new email server. Projects with great potential for optimization, in particular, affect extensive company processes and must be implemented across departments. But when the tried and tested are suddenly replaced by something new digital, companies sometimes encounter resistance from within their ranks.

“Digitization can bring about radical changes. Some managers shy away from this, especially if the benefits of the transformation process have not been communicated to them by the company management”,. To guarantee a smooth transition, change processes should be planned, defined, and communicated in advance with the top management. Subsequently, such far-reaching changes must be supported and defended by everyone.

When Digitization Becomes A Question Of Responsibilities

Sometimes the biggest problem with digital transformation processes is the question of responsibility. Many companies do not have their own IT department and instead delegate digital tasks to the relevant working groups. In larger projects with high requirements, however, this can quickly lead to capacity problems. Because even if there is an internal IT department, it is often overloaded with the requirements of a large-scale digitization project.

“In many companies that have difficulties getting started with digital transformation, the tasks are repeatedly delegated in a circle,”. To counteract the failure of the change process, external consultants take over the system implementation and introduce employees specifically to the system and the new strategy within the project framework. In this way, the company saves the costly further training of its IT specialists for individual projects. In addition, consulting firms such as CNT support holistic projects – starting with project and workshop planning, through implementation to training and support after the digital changeover. Both the entire company and each employee benefit from this.

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