Instant gratification isn’t a new phenomenon, but it’s an expectation that has grown exponentially in recent years. Need a ride now? Tap an app. Want to binge-watch a new show? It’s a click away. Hungry? Dinner can be at your door in minutes.
Research conducted by Microsoft shows that 64% of consumers demand real-time interactions, while a similar study by Akamai highlighted that a staggering 40% of consumers would abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. This “on-demand” mindset has seeped into every aspect of how customers interact with businesses.
Urgency or Necessity… Why It Matters
This impatience isn’t just about convenience; it’s about meeting heightened expectations in an era where speed is synonymous with efficiency and innovation. For businesses, this translates into a pressing need for agility and responsiveness. The difference between survival and demise. The ability to quickly respond to market changes, launch new products and services, and scale operations on demand is a critical differentiator.
This need for speed is driving a surge in public cloud adoption with many businesses turning to the cloud’s strengths to achieve their growth goals. It goes without saying that demand for speed from customers in turn requires applications and platforms that can match the pace. However, simply migrating to the cloud isn’t enough. To truly unlock the power of the cloud and achieve unparalleled speed, businesses need to modernise their applications.
Enter the concept of ‘cloud native’, where applications are either designed from the beginning to reside in the cloud, or in the cases of older applications, modernised and migrated to the cloud. By reshaping and optimising their applications for a cloud native environment, businesses can unlock a number of benefits, including portability, scalability, resilience and development agility.
Modernisation adds to your velocity
Cloud-native is a key element of effective modernisation but making the move can be overwhelming, fraught with challenges and bring unexpected costs. The key is to set up the transition for success with effective planning and doing groundwork upfront.
Typically, the fastest way to start seeing benefits from cloud native architectures is to re-platform your existing applications by containerising them. However, to fully experience the benefits of cloud native, applications have to be refactored, a process that breaks down functional areas of the application into microservices that operate independently of one another.
Refactoring is the longer, more labour intensive option, but ultimately will maximise the benefits for your business. The refactoring process is normally undertaken by your own application developers, along with relevant vendors and partners that specialise in application refactoring. (Editors note: Refactoring is not a service provided by LSD Open, but we are happy to make recommendations to find the right partner for your needs).
The option and speed that you proceed with is determined by several factors, including your business goals and budget. This ensures that you choose the right option for your scenario and puts you in a better position to make the move to cloud native when the time is exactly right for the business.
Modernised organisations are quicker and more agile, they can come up with innovative offerings at speed, deliver them to customers faster – and pivot rapidly if they need to. This provides a better customer experience, on the platforms of their customer’s choice, whenever they choose.
How do you accelerate application modernisation?
Accelerated application modernisation means you’re working with the applications that are running your business today, and don’t have to start from scratch or do a rip-and-replace migration. By creating containerised apps and microservices that can run on any system, you start off running on your own infrastructure and can port to cloud as and when required.
Automation can also play a huge role in reducing response and provisioning times of infrastructure and service availability. With machine-readable configuration files, automation introduces elements of consistency, scalability and efficient infrastructure deployment and management. By automating infrastructure management, developers can focus on building and improving applications instead of managing environments.
Keep the business involved
The keys to speed are digitalisation and modernisation. It is a journey, and migrating to the cloud is just one of the steps along the way to reach that goal. A successful application modernisation strategy starts with the business need and then focuses on technologies.
It’s important to have a DevOps approach to application modernisation so you keep digitalisation efforts aligned with the business all the way. Using this methodology will ensure that business factors are continuously brought back into consideration and aligned with what is happening on the development front.
Moving forward
The demand for speed in today’s digital landscape is undeniable. Customers expect seamless, real-time experiences, and businesses that can’t keep up will fall behind. Cloud-native application modernisation is the key to unlocking the agility, scalability, and performance needed to thrive in this fast-paced environment.
The ideal time to start your modernisation journey was yesterday, but the second-best time is now. With LSD Open, you can not only catch up but leap ahead of the game. Our expertise in cloud-native technologies and DevOps practices will empower you to build applications that are fast, scalable, and resilient, delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving business growth.
