The upgrading of technology has become a battle for existence. As a result, according to recent Infosys study, 70 to 90 percent of today’s legacy systems will be updated over the next five years.

Phased modernisation rather than rip-and-replace approaches are preferred by organisations, notwithstanding the necessity. In order to avoid the risks and costs of “big bang” deployment, as well as the perception that it is out-of-date, it is necessary to keep certain fundamental legacy programmes in place. Progressive modernization’s cheap costs and near-zero downtime make it a strong contender in the battle for business continuity.

It also aligns with the four pillars of an effective IT modernization strategy: the data-driven organisation, hybrid cloud adoption, a focus on the user experience, and API linkages.

The data-driven organisation may benefit from modernization

Data-driven enterprises are exactly what they sound like: businesses that use data to manage their day-to-day operations, operations, and choices and that continually improve them.

Digital technologies like robotic process automation, machine learning, cloud and analytics are used by data-driven organisations to automate the enterprise, anticipate customer needs, predict and respond to events in real time, innovate and personalise products, devise new business models, and continually learn. In addition, by incorporating machine learning, a never-ending cycle of development and learning may be put in motion.

Sadly, the bulk of companies are still far from becoming data-driven in their decision-making. Many of the reasons behind this are well-known: contradictory to the concepts of a data-driven company are antiquated procedures and technologies as well as data silos that lack flexibility, speed, and transparency.

In many ways, modernization helps to alleviate these problems. Platform-based components and open-source software solutions simplify monolithic, interconnected systems, increasing their agility, adaptability, and flexibility. A componentized core system is also ideal for gradual modernisation.

Using microservices, APIs, and webhooks, data can be shared throughout the company and with the external ecosystem to enhance innovation and business choices. This data may be shared with other solutions such as AI, RPA, analytics, and more. In fact, APIs, AI, and microservices were cited by respondents in the aforementioned study as the second-most important drivers of modernization in their organisations, just behind data and analytics.

Modernization also prepares the company for the cloud.

Cloud computing and modernization need each other

It’s tough to conceive modernization and cloud without the other. In order to interact with multiple as-a-service models and cloud-native apps, modernising corporate systems makes them cloud ready. The pandemic’s remote-work success was a direct result of the cloud’s role in accelerating digital change.

Hybrid cloud should be the first choice for organisations on a modernisation path. To speed up modernization efforts, hybrid cloud functions as a bridge between on-premises and cloud infrastructure.

Hybrid cloud combines the best features of both public and private clouds from a variety of service providers, giving users the flexibility, scalability, and cost savings of public cloud with the privacy, security, and control of private cloud. The compatibility between private and public cloud systems is also a benefit.

For data-driven enterprises, hybrid cloud is more than capable of satisfying their enormous data and analytics needs, thanks to its elastic, almost infinite processing power, access to many apps, and support for information exchange.

Also, hybrid cloud infrastructure improves company operations, from customer service to regulatory compliance to employee productivity.

Without a user experience to match, modernization is worthless

Just like consumers outside, employees inside an organisation seek straightforward, frictionless experiences; research reveal that a large majority of users cease using applications because of bad user experience (UX).

Because of this, organisations should also consider improving their user experience while upgrading their ageing technological infrastructure. As part of this effort, the front-end interfaces will be reworked to make it easier for users to obtain data, reduce duplicate procedures, and create more efficient ones.

When it comes to a system’s performance, altering the infrastructure improves it, but changing the user experience (UX) enhances it. In order to maximise the advantages of modernisation, it is important to ensure that the system’s usability supports user adoption.

Connecting the enterprise with API modernization

There may be a need for numerous modernization programmes to be undertaken simultaneously in large businesses with complicated technological environments, such as many core platforms that are not cleanly connected. Core platforms may be upgraded by detaching them from one other using APIs, which modularize the architecture.

When it comes to integrating and exchanging data across platforms, apps, channels, etc. throughout the organisation APIs play a critical role.

It was always necessary to keep up with the times, but the epidemic made it much more so. While the epidemic may be over, progress in modernising must continue. There are many alternative paths to modernization, but they all cross the same milestones – data, hybrid cloud, user experience and APIs – on the way.