Broadly speaking, app modernisation efforts can be broken down into four stages: assessment, migration, modernisation and optimisation. At each of these stages, organisations must seek out and implement the tools and practices that will lead to success.

An assessment can make or break an app modernisation effort. Automation is essential at the assessment stage, as humans can miss opportunities for modernization and slow down the process. A holistic assessment engagement, such as Accelacloud Strategic Application Rationalisation Assessment, can help organisations to analyse their code, evaluate it against modernisation goals, and provide a custom roadmap that leads to applications that are more scalable and easier to maintain. During a SARA engagement, hundreds or even thousands of applications can be analysed using our proprietary reporting and analysis methodology. To fuel digital transformation, it is important that assessments look at environments from a software standpoint rather than taking an infrastructure-centric approach.

Business and IT leaders sometimes overlook the importance of selecting the right cloud provider to host their modernised applications. Too often, organisations make this choice by default, simply continuing to use a public cloud environment with which they are familiar. However that this decision should be based on a provider’s ability to deliver necessary services. 

Once organisations have assessed their application environments and decided where their modernised apps will live, they must do the difficult work of creating cloud-ready applications that meet their needs. Typically, this process relies heavily on the use of containers, packages of software that are bundled together across application code, enabling seamless deployment across multiple environments. Other important tools include microservices, an architectural approach that makes development more agile by allowing each core function to be built independently; automation, which can streamline tasks such as deployment and diagnostics; and artificial intelligence, which can help organisations to mine insights from their applications.

Anyone who has worked in IT for long enough knows that the success or failure of an initiative often depends on how well it is sustained over time. Application monitoring tools can help organizations to ensure that their modernized app environments continue to perform as expected and meet users’ needs, and managed services can help reduce the burden on internal IT staffers. To support an agile, digitally transformed workplace, organizations must ensure alignment between their new application environments and their people, processes and governance. They must also closely track key performance indicators and adjust their practices over time to address changes in performance.