In 2023 and going ahead, digital transformation is critical and has become increasingly important for businesses. Digital transformation not only makes a business competitive but also ensures that establishments can meet the changing demands of consumers.
By embracing digital transformation, businesses can expand operative efficiency, intensify agility, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation.
Ultimately, digital transformation can help businesses stay ahead of the curve and remain relevant in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
In this article, let we will analyze and understand the following:
What is Digital Transformation? Why do businesses in this day and age need Digital Transformation?
What are the benefits of Digital Transformation?
What are the top digital transformation trends for businesses in 2023?
And lastly, why should your businesses adapt to this wave of Digital Transformation? Why is it so important?
What is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is integrating digital technology into all business areas, fundamentally changing how it operates and delivers value to customers.
It involves adopting and implementing new digital technologies and business models for overall growth!
The goal of digital transformation is to leverage technology to create new opportunities for development and competitiveness and to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Why do Businesses in This Day and Age Need Digital Transformation?
To stay competitive: In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses that do not embrace digital transformation risk falling behind their competitors. The need for digital technologies allows businesses to stay ahead of the curve and maintain their competitiveness.
Improve operational efficiency: Digital transformation can automate manual processes and streamline workflows, leading to increased efficiency and reduced costs.
Enhance customer experiences: Adapting to digital technologies allows businesses to create more personalized and engaging customer experiences that further boost customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Drive innovation: Digital transformation enables businesses to leverage new technologies and business models to drive innovation, produce new products and services, and explore new markets.
Cater to market demands: Digital transformation can help businesses quickly respond to changes in the market, stay ahead of customer needs, take advantage of new opportunities, and cater to the changing demands of the market.
Manage data: As the volume of data generated by businesses continues to grow, digital transformation can help enterprises effectively manage and use their data, leading to better decision-making and improved outcomes.
Attract and retain talent: In a competitive job market, businesses that embrace digital transformation can attract and retain top talent by offering a modern and innovative work environment.
The Four Benefits of Digital Transformation:
Increased agility: Digital transformation enables businesses to adapt to market changes quickly, respond to customer needs, and take advantage of new opportunities.
More significant insights and data-driven decision-making: Digital transformation can give businesses access to vast amounts of data and advanced analytics tools, allowing them to make informed, data-driven decisions.
New revenue streams: By leveraging digital technologies and business models, businesses can create new products and services, and explore new markets, leading to increased revenue growth.
Improved collaboration and teamwork: Digital transformation can facilitate better collaboration and communication within and between teams, leading to more effective decision-making and problem-solving.
Seven Top Digital Transformation Trends That Businesses Must Follow In 2023:
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: AI and ML will continue to play a significant role in automating tasks, improving operational efficiency, driving innovation, and creating new business models.
Internet of Things (IoT): IoT will become increasingly important as businesses look to gather and analyze data from connected devices to gain insights and make data-driven decisions.
Cloud Computing: Cloud technology will continue to play a central role in digital transformation, enabling businesses to access computing resources on-demand and reduce their IT infrastructure costs.
Cybersecurity: As businesses increasingly rely on digital technologies, cybersecurity will become a top priority, with a focus on protecting sensitive data and avoiding cyber-attacks.
5G Networks: 5G networks will offer businesses increased speed and capacity, allowing for faster and more reliable communication and data transfer and enabling new use cases such as autonomous vehicles and augmented reality.
Edge Computing: Edge computing will become increasingly important as the volume of data generated by IoT devices continues to grow, allowing for real-time processing and analysis of data at the network’s edge.
Remote Work: The trend towards remote work will continue, with businesses investing in digital tools and infrastructure to support remote teams and ensure seamless collaboration and communication.
So why exactly should your businesses adapt to this wave of Digital Transformation in 2023, and why is it so important?
Digital transformation is essential for businesses that want to find relevance and be competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Companies should adapt to the wave of digital transformation because it is the need of the hour!
Digital transformation is important as it allows businesses to access newer opportunities, enable better decision-making, attract customers, and retain talent.
In conclusion, digital transformation is not just a trend but a necessary evolution for businesses that want to stay competitive and relevant in today’s digital world. As it prepares businesses for the future, ensuring their continued success and significance in a rapidly developing digital landscape.
Would you like to bring Digital Transformation to your business?
It is simple! Just book a free consultation with the digital transformation experts at
Alignminds
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Around the globe, businesses are migrating to the cloud to reduce IT infrastructure costs. Cloud computing helps them to customize computing based on actual requirements and avoid any wasteful spending.
However, as the popularity of the cloud increased, the cost of cloud computing also increased. This happened mainly due to a small group of mega vendors dominating the public cloud markets. Due to monopoly, innovation became stagnated, and prices became no more competitive due to new entrants having no ability to enter the market. Businesses were forced to discover new opportunities for cost saving without compromising on quality.
This unique situation led to the discovery of a new architecture called multicloud. Nowadays, this computing model has become the de facto standard among organizations.
According to a survey conducted by Flexera, 89% of organizations are following a multi-cloud strategy. Only 2% of organizations are still in a single private cloud. When it comes to the case of a single public cloud, the figure stands at 9%. These figures prove how fast the cloud computing market is evolving and how rapidly multicloud is becoming the new face of the industry.
What is multicloud? Definition and meaning
Multicloud is the use of cloud services from multiple cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure so that the organization will have more flexibility to optimize performance, control costs and leverage the best cloud technologies of the day.
In a multicloud model, an organization can use two or more private clouds, two or more public clouds or a combination of public, private and edge clouds to run their applications and distribute services. Such cloud computing models make use of open source, cloud-native technologies like Kubernetes that are supported by all public cloud providers. The model will also have a “central console” to monitor and manage workloads across multiple cloud platforms.
Multicloud architecture is mainly used for enterprise application development, compute infrastructure, data warehousing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud storage and disaster recovery.
Multicloud vs Hybrid: Are they the same?
Even though both multicloud and hybrid clouds use more than one cloud platform for deployments, they differ due to the kinds of clouds used in the architecture.
There are mainly two kinds of cloud deployment: public and private.
In the public cloud computing model, computing resources and infrastructure are managed by a third-party vendor and shared with more than one user via the internet. Whereas, in a private cloud computing model, the computing resources and infrastructure is dedicated to only a single organisation/user. Usually, it’s an organization that builds and maintains a private cloud themselves. However, they can also seek help from an external vendor to host a private cloud for them.
The difference between multicloud and hybrid cloud models depends on whether they are using private cloud, public cloud or a combination of both.
A hybrid cloud model makes use of two or more types of clouds. In other words, a computing model that makes use of private and public clouds for deployment is known as a hybrid cloud. In contrast, a multicloud model may utilize a combination of clouds that can be two or more private clouds, two or more public clouds or a combination of private and public clouds.
You need to consider various factors before deciding whether you need a multicloud or hybrid cloud strategy for your business.
Cost
Private clouds are costly to set up and maintain compared to public clouds. This is mainly because there are multiple beneficiaries participating in a public cloud model and the cost is shared among them all making it cheaper. Whereas in the case of the private cloud, all costs are borne by a single organization. So naturally, a multicloud model that utilizes several public clouds will be cheaper than a hybrid cloud model that utilizes private and public clouds.
Reliability
The Multicloud model is comparatively more reliable since the model makes use of multiple clouds to distribute the services. Even during peak times when the demand is high, the application will be up and running without any issues as the workload can be distributed to backup clouds or more resources can be allocated. On the other hand, a sudden rise in demand may overwhelm a hybrid cloud architecture since it will be consisting of at least one private cloud and private clouds are not easy to scale generally.
Security
The security element should be evaluated carefully when deciding between multicloud and hybrid cloud models.
Most of the multicloud and public cloud vendors have more resources at their disposal to fight security intrusion, data theft, privacy breach etc. They frequently release new patches to protect the data of the users.
However, if you have access to a private cloud or on-premises data centre that is best in terms of security and management, a hybrid cloud model will be a better choice for you.
Resources
Most public cloud services are fully controlled by third-party vendors. This is an advantage for businesses that want to maintain a small team and avoid unwanted overhead.
On the other hand, an on-premises data centre requires a team of experts to set up, run, maintain and manage the infrastructure. Even if you approach an external vendor to host a private cloud for you, the price will be higher due to service, support and maintenance charges.
Scalability and dependency
Lack of scalability is one of the major issues haunting on-premises infrastructures. Growth will not be possible without upgrading the technologies on a regular basis. Such requirements demand more investments and maintaining a team of experts to manage the infrastructure is also needed. Migrating from legacy systems to the cloud also demands effort, investments and time.
On the other hand, a multicloud environment makes scaling easier for a business. Moreover, a business does not have to depend on a team or vendor in a multicloud environment as they can move to better alternatives without much hassle.
Performance
Public cloud servers can vastly boost application performance and user experience by integrating new computing methodologies like edge computing.
Other benefits of multicloud
Flexibility
The multicloud model provides businesses with an opportunity to choose cloud services from different vendors. An organization can choose cloud service providers based on a combination of price, performance, location, security, legal compliance etc.
Technology advantage
Multicloud enables businesses to have a technology edge over their competitors. Since a multicloud user is not dependent on a single vendor, the organization can move to a better environment that offers advanced technologies.
Reduced outages
In a multicloud environment, an outage on one cloud will not affect other clouds in the same environment. As a result, the application will run smoothly without any interruptions and the organization can ensure a better user experience.
No more monopoly
With the introduction of multicloud, technology gatekeeping and industry monopoly in the IT sector have come to an end. It was a usual strategy followed by several vendors to charge a premium for their services because they were marketed as an “ecosystem” that is easy to use and well-integrated. This strategy is not effective anymore since businesses now have the option to combine services of different vendors and create their own “cloud ecosystem”.
Even with all these advantages, the multicloud model may not be suitable for all businesses. It is mainly due to the challenges posed by it.
Multicloud: Challenges
Management
Since multicloud utilizes more than one cloud, integrating, monitoring and managing them may appear as a challenge to some businesses. The situation becomes more complex when the different vendors are following different processes, methodologies and technologies. Also, data and technology stacks being scattered across different clouds under different vendors may have their disadvantages too.
Latency
When different services are running on different clouds, there will be frequent interactions between clouds to fulfil user requests. This can introduce latency depending on how closely the services are integrated, the amount of data that needs to be transferred, the location of each cloud and the frequency of the interactions. Utilizations of technologies such as microservices and edge computing etc. can solve this issue to an extent.
Risk
When an application is using many software and hardware, it is offering more targets for a cyber-attack. A single vulnerability in any of these components can lead to the complete shutdown of the application and services and sensitive data may end up in unwanted hands. So, a strict security policy should be formulated before adopting a multicloud model.
Performance
Load balancing can become difficult when there are multiple clouds involved. So, a centralized console to monitor and manage resources across all clouds is very crucial in a multicloud environment.
Multicloud management
To utilize the full benefits of multicloud architecture, all the clouds involved must be integrated closely as if they were part of a single cloud. Therefore, a central console to monitor and manage resources and services across all clouds plays a vital role in a multicloud architecture. With the help of the central console, an organization can
Maintain uniform and consistent security across all clouds.
Ensure a universal application of compliance policies.
Ensure consistency across every stage of the application life cycle (Development, staging, testing, deployment, production etc.)
Monitor events and logs from different service components using a single interface.
Configure consistent response to all events.
Implement version control effectively and efficiently.
Keeping the above points in mind, you can choose a cloud management tool or multicloud management platform that
Helps you monitor and control any cloud resource including IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, data storage, networking or deployment resources.
Offers analytical capabilities with the advantages of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). AI and ML can be used to streamline operations (E.g., AIOps), add elasticity to resource scaling and perform automatic responses to various events.
Helps you implement consistent and universal security and compliance policies.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning can be used in multicloud computing to optimize resource usage and to have better analytics. (Image credit: iqlect.com)
Examples of multicloud management platform
VMware
VMware offers you the vRealize Suite, a central management console, to monitor and control the availability of resources and their utilizations irrespective of what deployment platform you use. vRealize already offers different modules to help you manage resource catalogues, policies, self-service deployment and CI/CD for DevOps organizations. And the number of modules it offers is increasing day by day. For example, in 2018, VMware acquired CloudHealth which can help you with cost management and optimization. It recently acquired SaltStack, an infrastructure automation platform.
VMware stack can run on AWS natively and Azure and GCP via CloudSimple. The VMware Tanzu Kubernetes already works well with AWS. It will start supporting Azure and Oracle cloud very soon.
HyperGrid
HyperGrid is a new kid on the block. It is widely recognized as an “intelligent cloud management platform” due to its full range of capabilities that extend to proactive budget monitoring and reporting, security control, audit readiness, continuous compliance and migration and disaster recovery planning. Gartner considers HyperGrid a “Visionary” in the field. IBM, the US Navy, Synopsys, Henry Schein etc. are a few well-known names in their customer list.
HyperGrid Supports AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and VMware.
Scalr
Scalr boasts itself as the only CMP (Cloud Management Platform) designed for enterprise scale. It enables enterprises to incorporate standardization to resource usage and have better cost control. Another advantage of Scalr is that it allows enterprises to choose cloud platforms that meet their actual needs rather than being restricted to using only the features offered by a specific vendor(s). Scalr helps organizations to avoid vendor lock-ins. Recognizing Scalr’s commitment to multicloud philosophy, Gartner named it a leader in the industry.
Samsung, Gannett, Sephora, the FDA, NASA JPL, Xerox, etc. are a few well-known names in their customer list.
Here are a few features that are offered by Scalr
A single central console to monitor cloud usage.
Option to incorporate conditional security and compliance
Role-based access control.
Smooth integration with various IT and DevOps tools.
Customized provisioning portals.
Morpheus
Morpheus aims to integrate CloudOps with DevOps. It offers a variety of multicloud management tools to link development, IT operations and business processes.
Morpheus offers AI-based reporting tools to optimize cloud costs. It also provides role-based access so that the organization can have better governance of the environment. The self-service tools help with faster provisioning and deployment. And in fact, Morpheus claims that its users can set up and run a multicloud environment in less than one hour. It also supports more than 20 cloud platforms.
McDonald’s, BlackRock, AstraZeneca, Penn State etc. are a few well-known names in their customer list.
Conclusion
By Adopting a multicloud model organizations can now have the freedom to use the best possible cloud for each workload. It helps them to avoid unwanted overhead, improve performance, reliability and security and have a technological advantage over their competitors.
Looking for a multicloud solution for your next project? Contact us now!
Gartner defines edge computing as a distributed computing topology where information processing is located close to the edge where things and people produce or consume that information.
The birth of edge computing can be traced back to the 1990s when content distribution networks were created to serve web and video content from edge servers close to users. Later, edge computing evolved into an advanced version that hosts applications and application components such as shopping carts, ad insertion engines, dealer locators and real-time data aggregators.
Edge computing market revenue worldwide from 2019 to 2025(in billion U.S. dollars)
Source: Statista
The number of papers related to edge computing on Google Scholar was only 720 in 2015. However, it has grown to more than 25,000 in 2020. The number of edge patent filings done as of 2020 is 6,418. This is a hundred times more than the number of patents filed related to edge computing in 2015.
While the edge computing market was valued at 139 billion US dollars in 2019, it is expected to reach 274 billion US Dollars in value by 2025.
Apart from these data and figures, if we investigate the real world, the word “edge computing” is becoming familiar across industries, day by day.
So, what’s the deal with edge computing? Why more and more companies are adopting it and becoming an advocate for this technology?
“Edge computing is a networking philosophy focused on bringing computing as close to the source of data as possible in order to reduce latency and bandwidth use. In simpler terms, edge computing means running fewer processes in the cloud and moving those processes to local places, such as on a user’s computer, an IoT device, or an edge server. “
From this definition, it is clear that edge computing is a distributed computing principle applied by companies to reduce delay in information processing and bandwidth usage by moving computing closer to the source of information.
Since the computing is executed as close as possible to the users, there is minimal long-distance communication between a client and the server. As a result, the users will have a faster and more secure experience when using technology-based services and the service providers will have the benefits of providing the best-in-class user experience.
How does edge computing work?
Traditionally, enterprise computing was done by moving data that is produced at the user’s devices via the internet to enterprise servers, then it is stored and worked upon, and the results were sent back to the user’s device. Client-server computing was the most proven and time-tested approach implemented by most organisations.
However, ever since the internet and digital revolution, the volume of data produced by consumers and shared with enterprises skyrocketed. Sending, storing, and computing such a large volume of data at a centre infrastructure became a herculean task. Also, sending and receiving so much data put a toll on the internet. There was frequent congestion, latency issues even downtime that affected the services.
So, the industry came up with an idea of a decentralized system in which the storage and computing are done closer to where the information is produced. Since the computing is done at this closer point, called “the edge”, this approach is known as “edge computing”.
Edge nodes or Edge servers collect and process data locally. Depending on the business model and architecture, sometimes the results of the process are sent to the principal server that is deployed in the cloud.
To better understand how edge computing works, here are a few use cases for you.
Transportation
Self-driven vehicles are replacing manual-driven vehicles at a faster rate. They are widely used for cargo movements and courier services. Such autonomous vehicles function by aggregating a large volume of data related to their location, physical condition, road condition, climate condition, traffic condition, speed and movements of other vehicles close by. It is by gathering and analysing such data in real-time that the vehicle is able to reach its destination without any accident or shortcomings. To facilitates this “auto-piloting”, onboard computing is very much required as a single self-driven vehicle produces anywhere between 5 TB to 20 TB of data in a day.
Network routing
Latency has a significant role in internet traffic. To ensure the quality of the network, the traffic must be routed via the most reliable and low latency path. Edge computing can help with optimizing network routes by regularly measuring traffic conditions across the internet and choosing the best path for each user’s traffic.
Healthcare
Healthcare has technologised rapidly in recent years. There are countless pieces of equipment that make use of the latest technologies to diagnose and monitor the health of a patent. Such types of equipment collect and process large volumes of data, regularly for a longer period of time. With the help of edge computing and machine learning these data can be used for finding abnormalities and delivering proper treatment at the right time.
Retail
The benefit of implementing edge computing in the retail sphere is manyfold. It can be used for surveillance, stock tracking and refilling, real-time sales monitoring, and analysis, aggregating, sales and customer information, loyalty programmes based on sales data, item procurements etc.
Manufacturing
A product must go through many stages before its ready for sending to the market. These stages include product design, prototyping, production, quality checks, packaging, and branding. By implementing edge computing, manufacturers are able to monitor these activities in real-time and at a large scale and it also enables them to reduce resource wastage and find loopholes in the existing process. Together with machine learning, edge computing helps manufacturers collect and analyse data in real-time. Making the right decision at the right time has become easier for them.
Benefits of edge computing
Speed
Since data is produced and processed at the same point, computing became a lot faster. There is no need to send and receive large chunks of data and there is little to no uncertainty of computing demands. Due to this increased responsiveness, edge computing is better than traditional and cloud computing in so many cases such as IoT, autonomous driving, healthcare, public safety, surveillance, augmented reality etc.
The healthcare industry has already recognized the benefit of edge computing.
Reliability
The distributed topology ensures that reliability is not a concern when it comes to edge computing. Because the data is produced and processed at the edge, and multiple edge nodes are used in the system, failure in one node does not affect the remaining ones. Also, since there is a low dependency on the central cloud server, any disruption in the connectivity between the cloud and edge node will not affect the overall performance. In fact, once the connection is restored, the data can be securely synchronized between the nodes and server.
Efficiency
Since computing is executed at the edge, edge computing offers a sophisticated environment that is fit for the usage of advanced analytical tools, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. We have already seen how this can help certain industries like transportation and healthcare.
The opportunity to use powerful analytical tools also helps the system to optimize itself. The system can regularly monitor the user demands and determine where to execute the computing depending on how resource-intensive the task is. For example, if the edge node has the required capacity, it can execute the task and send back the results to the client device saving up bandwidth, resources, and time. If the task requires additional resources, it can be assigned to the central server, where most resource-intensive but rare occurrence tasks are executed.
Scalability
A distributed system is easier to scale than a traditional one. New nodes can be set up to meet the growing demands and any addition or removal of nodes will not affect the system as a whole. Also, each node can be customized according to demands that are specific to the area it serves.
Privacy and security
Edge computing makes use of special encryption mechanisms to protect data that may travel between client and nodes, nodes and nodes and nodes and server. Using a decentralized trust model, the communication between each node is evaluated and whitelisted. Since edge computing emphasises producing, gathering, and processing data at a single point, data is handled in a better way in terms of security and privacy. For example, a node that is situated in a particular geography can be governed by the local law and the condition of local infrastructure and vulnerabilities can also be taken into consideration while setting up the security measures.
Is edge computing and IoT the same?
It is a common misconception that edge computing and IoT are the same. In reality, Internet of Things (IoT) is a use case of edge computing.
IoT makes use of cloud servers for data storage and computing. It means that IoT totally depends on the internet for connectivity. It also means that IoT implementations are centralized and usually intended for specific purposes only.
However, edge computing is decentralized by design, and it can be implemented independently of the internet since data can be produced, collected, and processed at a single point. An edge computing system can also be generic in nature and the data and processes can be heterogeneous.
In short, IoT can be implemented as part of edge computing. However, both are vastly different.
Edge vs cloud vs fog computing
It is common to compare the new technology with existing ones to find out whether it is justifiable to adopt it for your business. The case of edge computing is not exceptional in this matter. Organisations are already used to cloud and fog computing. There should be apparent incentives for them to adopt the new kid in the block. So, let us discuss how these three are different from each other and what they bring to the table.
Edge computing
Edge computing is the deployment of computing and storage resources closer to where the data is produced or consumed. For example, a retail mall with an indoor traffic system can use edge computing to collect and process traffic data in real-time to facilitate its smooth functioning. If it is a chain business, data can be sent to a centralized data centre for human review. However, if the amount of data collected and processed exceeds the computing and storage capacity, the system will fail until the capabilities are improved.
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the distributed deployment of computational resources and data storage over multiple locations. Since computing is available on-demand, cloud computing is highly scalably and affordable at the same time. Since it is a distributed system, cloud computing offers better storage and retrievability of data and there is least to nil concern about data being lost forever.
However, each cloud server can still be far away from end-users. Data is processing at these far away points and the system depends on the internet to share the data between client and server. In other words, cloud computing is nothing but traditional computing implemented in a distributed architecture that depends on the internet. It consumes bandwidth, can be affected by latency and even overwhelmed by a sudden surge in demands if not configured with the right anticipation.
Fog computing
Fog computing or fogging is an improvised version of edge computing. Sometimes, “the edge” become so large that implementing a strict edge computing system will be detrimental to the actual plan. For example, smart cities are producing a large volume of data every minute. These data are heterogeneous in nature and used for different purposes. However, the objective of the whole implementation could be based on a few principles. Setting up several nodes to cover the whole city will not be practical and it will also affect the objective of the whole system. So, such a system makes use of a fog layer that consists of fog nodes. These fog nodes act as a backend to the edge nodes and add additional computing power to the whole system. Fog computing is the combination of cloud and edge computing and aims to mitigate the weaknesses of both.
Conclusion
Edge computing has opened up so many untapped opportunities and several industries have already started leveraging its advantages. However, its true potential is still unachievable due to the lack of compact devices with enough computing power and software that can handle a limitless number of edge devices. Improvised versions of edge computing such as fog computing may be a step in the right direction.
Are you looking for a renowned technology partner to develop a next-generation edge computing solution? Contact our team of experts for a free consultation.
Cloud migration services are becoming popular day by day. As more businesses are optioning for cloud technologies, the industry has seen a sudden growth in recent times. The surge in demand for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is an example of this.
According to Gartner, worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 23.1% in 2021 to total $332.3 billion, up from $270 billion in 2020. Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report states that enterprises are continuing to spend on the cloud and most of the respondents are leveraging multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies.
Cloud migration: The driving force
The COVID pandemic has had a significant impact on the pace of cloud adoption. However, the trend was much noticeable even before the pandemic. Organizations that recognized the benefits of cloud technologies were the first to move from traditional environments to cloud ones. In other words, the benefits that are offered by the cloud environments are the driving force behind this trend. The pandemic has just fastened its pace.
Why migrate to the cloud?
The main advantage of the cloud is that it offers growth and scalability. Since these two are the major goals of any business, most of them saw the emergence of cloud technologies as an opportunity to turn their ambitions into realities.
The major benefits of cloud include,
Cost
Setting up and maintaining technology infrastructure will drive up the total cost of ownership. You must spend on purchasing the components, hiring experts to set up the system, place proper authorizations and security measures, enable hardware and software compatibility, and update the system as technology and industry advances. It is your responsibility to train your staff or hire an external team to periodically evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the system, make it up to date and running. These are the major drawbacks of any legacy systems.
However, ever since companies like Amazon and Microsoft started offering cloud services to thousands of customers, companies could opt for infrastructure as services and pay only for the usage. Since the cost is divided among a large customer base, the price of the services has become affordable.
Resources
To set up, run and maintain legacy systems, businesses have to invest on human resources. The systems are maintained by dedicated staff who need to have adequate knowledge on how the system works and how to make it compatible and future-proof.
However, when a business is optioning for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), they are also getting expert support as part of the service. The service provider will take care of staffing, training, maintenance and updating of the system. So, the businesses can fully focus on their core functions.
Security
The security of data was a big headache for businesses. Even now, it remains a major concern for them and their end-users. The introduction of cloud systems couldn’t change it. However, ever since businesses have started adopting IaaS, businesses could worry less and spend less on this area as the infrastructure providers also offer security as a part of the overall package.
During the time of legacy systems, businesses must allocate a portion of their profit to security and threat prevention. They are also compelled to periodically evaluate whether their infrastructure has any vulnerabilities, and it can withstand the latest threats. Many small businesses find it difficult to allocate funds since the profit they are gaining is already marginal.
However, the introduction of cloud as services brought new concepts like the “shared responsibility model” to the industry. The services provider, for example AWS, will be responsible for the hardware, network and other facilities needed to run the systems and you will be responsible for encrypting the data and authorization.
The benefit is that businesses no longer have to invest in research and development and maintenance of the infrastructure. The responsibility and cost of the same will fall on the service providers. Since their whole business model depends on the quality and security of what they offer, it is more likely that they will invest in these areas, and they are more than capable to do so compared to businesses depending on legacy systems.
Accessibility and Authorization
Legacy systems are more vulnerable to data theft and similar threats as the data are stored in local premises. Anyone who has access to such premises may have access to the stored data whether it is in raw form or encrypted form. So, companies had to take extra precautions to ensure data security when it comes to legacy systems.
On the other hand, data are stored safely and remotely in a cloud system. Often the services providers demand that the data should be converted into encrypted form to avoid any data leakage. They also offer several features to enable multi-level authorization where not everyone can access the whole data and often systems are in place to track who is accessing what.
Collaboration
Cloud enables several people from different locations of the world to work on a platform at the same time. This not only increases productivity and communications but also enables companies to hire from across the globe. Sometimes it is difficult to find the right talents locally or the cost of hiring locally may be higher. Using cloud technologies, businesses now have a way to overcome these challenges.
Speed
As cloud platforms leverage the advantages of latest technologies, they are often fast and more responsive compared to legacy systems. Also, cloud service providers have a good portion of their budget allocated to research and development of the platform to increase speed, compatibility, and uptime.
Should you migrate to the cloud?
For most businesses, migrating to the cloud will bring at least one or more benefits mentioned above. However, cloud migration has its own challenges. Often the process is considered troublesome and demands support from experts. Sometimes, the existing system may not be supported on the cloud and a new solution have to be developed from scratch.
Legacy application migration: Challenges
To understand the challenges of legacy application migration to cloud, we first must understand what a legacy system is.
Legacy systems
Legacy systems are self-managed applications deployed within a company’s on-premises. Typically, the pieces of equipment and facilities are owned by the company and the system is maintained by the company staff. This type of system requires huge cost to set up and run as the companies must invest in space, equipment, licenses, post-purchase services, hiring and training staff, maintenance and replacement, security and periodic evaluation etc.
What are the problems with legacy systems?
Legacy systems are sometimes considered as a hindrance to growth as businesses must find capital to invest in the infrastructure to enable scaling. Without uninterrupted cash flow, it will be difficult to invest in infrastructure and resources at each stage of growth. It becomes more challenging when the growth is sudden, or the business is not confined to one market.
How do you deal with legacy systems?
When it comes to dealing with legacy systems, there are mainly two ways.
You can maintain the legacy system
Or modernize the legacy applications
Maintaining legacy systems
Businesses choose to maintain legacy application to avoid cost involved with modernizing their applications. Be it maintaining, adding additional features, or replacing the existing applications with new one, it all demand additional investment in terms of money, resources, and time. However, most businesses consider maintaining the existing systems cost less money as compared to replacing it. So instead of investing on new technologies and methodologies, they will allocate a portion of total budget to maintain the existing system.
However, maintaining legacy applications become problematic for most business in long run. They must ensure frequent cashflow for maintenance, hire and train expertise to maintain the systems, replace outdated or failed components with new ones, and the uptime may go down causing a dissatisfaction among the end users. Maintaining legacy applications become more challenging when the industry is too narrow, where finding the expertise and replacing components are difficult and costly. When the applications are not modernized for so long, compatibility issues may arise, and it may force the business to replace the entire systems causing heavy investments.
How do you modernize a legacy application?
Through containerizing, rehosting or re-platforming businesses can maintain a legacy system. Amazon states that GE Oil & Gas reduced their TCO (total cost of ownership) by 52% by rehosting hundreds of applications to the cloud as part of a major digital overhaul.
With the help of containerization, businesses can improve the efficiency and portability of their legacy applications. It involves encapsulating software code and all its dependencies in order to make it suitable to run on any infrastructure. In simple terms, containerization helps applications to be “written once and run anywhere.”
Other ways of modernizing legacy applications include
Rehosting
Rehosting is moving the applications components to physical, virtual or cloud infrastructure without modifying the functions, features or structure of the applications.
Re-platforming
Migrating the entire system to a new platform to make the system compatible and futureproof. The system may undergo small modifications to make it fit for the new platform. However, the basic functions and features stay the same.
Restructure
Change the code of the applications and make it optimized for the current time. It is mainly done to make the applications more compatible, remove outdated methodologies from the code and incorporate efficient coding methods to the system.
Rearchitect
Change the entire architecture of the applications. It is mainly done to improve the capabilities of the application or make is compatible with a new platform. Sometimes it become costly as restructuring the entire code may also be involved in the process.
Rebuild
Rebuild specific functions of the application from scratch or rebuild the entire applications. The challenge is the process requires right planning and more investment.
Replace
Replace the legacy applications with modern systems. For example, the number of businesses moving from legacy applications to cloud based modern ERP solutions are increasing.
When it comes to modernizing legacy applications, the best way is to evaluate your situation and choose the path that is more efficiency, affordable and future-proof.
What is legacy cloud migration?
For most businesses cloud migration of legacy systems is the efficient and cost friendly way to modernize their systems.
In simple terms, cloud migration of legacy applications is a process of moving existing applications and its components from a on-premises infrastructure to a cloud based one. With the help of cloud migrations, the businesses will gain benefits like better scalability, security, efficiency, speed, team collaboration, less upkeeping cost and better end user satisfaction. As the legacy application is not replaced but only moved to a new platform, the functions and features of the systems remains almost the same.
However, businesses will also have an option to add additional features to the system as the new cloud platform will be more compatible with latest technologies. Since we are not replacing the entire system, the overall cost of modernizing legacy application is less compared to replacing it with a new one or rebuilding it entirely. It is also beneficial than maintaining the legacy application as the compatibility, uptime, and the cost of upkeeping of legacy systems will be on a downward trend each day.
How are applications migrated to the cloud?
Often, application migration to cloud is implemented in a systematic way.
Process of moving legacy applications to the cloud
Evaluation
The first step is to evaluate why you must migrate legacy applications to cloud. Often though it is adopted as a part of an organization’s long term digital strategy. As strategies are solutions to problems that may arise in the future, an organization will evaluate its current state and future trends in the industry periodically. The main objective of this evaluation involved doing a SWOT analysis of their existing systems and whether they can meet the businesses long term ambitions. Most businesses find legacy applications as a hindrance in long term as scaling and growth will be slowed down due to the characteristics associated with legacy systems and the cost involved with maintaining and upgrading such systems is also high.
Planning
Planning mostly involves identifying the systems that to be migrated, how much resources can be allocated for the process and when it can be implemented. The objective of the planning is to reduce the overall cost of migration by either migrating only the necessary components of a system or do it in a way as the resources needed for the process is bare minimum. This step also involves the process of deciding the right time to implement the migration to avoid any negative impact on the ongoing businesses functions. During this step you may also list down the objectives of cloud migration and what are the things you as a business trying to achieve from the process. The success of cloud migration will depend on whether you are able to meet these objectives and a reevaluation will be necessary at the end of the process.
Choosing the right cloud environment
Each cloud environment will have its own strength and weaknesses. You must evaluate each opportunity and identify which one is best suitable for your businesses case. Here the objective you set in the previous step become handy. The strength of a cloud environment can be anything like its price, unique development opportunities, uptime, customer support, compatibility features, futureproof or even marketing potentials.
More focus should be given to businesses core values and its long-term goals like end user satisfaction rather than short term objective like keeping the budget of the process under control. You may need the help of an expert to choose the right environment and to avoid making any mistakes. Please keep in mind, choosing the wrong environment will force you to spend more in future.
Choosing the right tool and expertise
There are numerous data migration tools available in the market. Since you are migrating an existing system, there will be data that is already stored in the system that have to be migrated safely and securely.
Just like different cloud environment, each these data migration tool has its own functions, strength, and weaknesses. So, a single tool cannot be used in all business cases. You must choose the one that is compatible with your existing infrastructure and the cloud environment you are planning to migrate to. Different data migration tool has different pricing. However, you should choose one considering factors like data loss prevention, efficiency, safety and compatibility, and security.
Reevaluation
As a final step, you as a business must evaluate whether moving to cloud has helped you to achieve the things you are intended. You must consider whether the new environment is helping you to overcome the weaknesses of the old system and how efficient it is in helping you achieve your businesses goals. You can also compare the results of the whole process with the list of benefits you had curated on step 2 (Planning). Only if the result of revaluation is positive, we can say that moving of legacy application to cloud was a successful endeavor for your business.
Conclusion
Moving legacy applications to the cloud offers several benefits that are crucial to you as a business. However, the migration must be planned and implemented carefully which may requires the help of a cloud migration expert. AlignMinds has more than 12 years of experience in working with legacy applications, cloud environments and cloud migration. If you are looking for a technology partner to plan and implement the entire process for you, feel free to contact us.
Cloud applications are becoming one of the popular options for businesses all over the world. The reason is, it helps them with their cost-cutting strategies.
Since cloud computing works with the help of the internet, the cost of setting up hardware and maintaining the infrastructure can be avoided. Also, the SAAS products have better support and they are easy to use due to their popularity and user base.
What is cloud computing?
Microsoft defines cloud computing as
“Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.”
The main benefits of cloud computing are
You pay only for cloud services/resources you use
Scalability: As more resources are easily available
Affordability: As you can run the infrastructure more efficiently
As cloud computing became more popular, there was a new trend that became prominent in the industry. The rise of cloud applications.
What are cloud applications?
A cloud application is software that works with the help of data stored in a remote server and uses its resources to process the data and functions. A cloud application has two different systems that work in synchronization. They are client-side and server-side systems. While some processes will take place on the client-side (client’s device/local hardware), the remaining process will be taking place on the server-side which is located remotely and connected with the help of the internet.
One of the main benefits of cloud applications is that they can be accessed from different devices, at any time from anywhere. Also, there are cloud applications that can work without being installed on local devices. Due to such benefits, cloud applications are becoming more popular in the technology industry.
Why should you use cloud applications?
Cost
The main advantage of cloud applications is that they save you money. Most of the cloud applications offer “pay as you go’ plans helping you pay only for the features you use. Also, there is no setup and maintenance cost in the traditional sense.
As cloud applications offer flexibility in terms of features, it is easier for you to upgrade them when a need arises. You can add more features to your existing plan and the investment is reasonable.
Security
Another major benefit of cloud applications is security. Since cloud services are offered by big companies, they can invest dedicated resources in improving the security of data and their services. They have more resources to invest in research and measurements to prevent data theft that may not be possible for a company that chooses in house data storage.
Flexibility
Cloud applications can be accessed from different devices by different users at the same time. You can access the same applications – if they are cloud-based – from a mobile or personal computer anywhere in the world. Due to this, cloud applications are the popular choice for big companies that spread across the globe or companies with a remote workforce.
Team collaboration
If you are a business that needs your team to collaborate on a large number of tasks, cloud applications are the best solutions. As cloud applications handle data instantly, sharing of information between team members becomes fast and secure. Some dedicated cloud applications offer their users the advantage of working on the same task simultaneously from across the globe. As a result, the execution of tasks takes less time.
Quality culture
Cloud applications can be used as a way to implement your company culture and quality control. As everyone in your team can access the same data and information stored in the applications, you can maintain quality standards, consistency in data formats and avoid human errors. It also helps with record-keeping as any updates from a user are automatically recorded by the cloud applications. Monitoring work progress and reviewing tasks will also become easier.
Low risk
As data is stored remotely and across multiple servers, the chance for data loss becomes less in the case of cloud applications. On the other hand, if you had gone with the traditional method of storing the data locally – in your company premises – any accident or natural calamities may lead to the loss of such valuable data. By storing data locally, you will also have the risk of data theft from a malicious insider.
Competitive edge
As mentioned earlier, cloud computing services are offered by big companies or companies that dedicate a good portion of resources in research and development in the latest technologies to cut down the competition for themselves. As they offer cloud computing as a service, it is natural for them to have competitors and the only way for them to stay in the business is to offer their clients – you – the best and latest services possible. As a result, when you opt for cloud applications you have a higher chance that you have the most up to date technology in your hand compared to your competitor who still uses traditional methods and invests their own limited resources on technology research and advancement.
Other benefits of Cloud applications
There is no need to install a cloud application on your device to get it working. Unlike traditional apps, they can work with the help of the internet and without using the resources of the local system. It also offers all features of a desktop app.
The main advantage of using a cloud application is that it uses many cloud servers that are placed across the world. So, the data is faster to retrieve irrespective of your location. Also, the data are more secure as they are remotely stored.
The virtual server helps the user to access the data from the nearest server thus decreasing latency.
Updations and deployment can be done quickly for a cloud app.
As only authorized users can access the data on cloud apps there is less data theft from internal parties.
Cloud applications offer mobility. A user can access the cloud app at any time, from anywhere. Usually, cloud applications support a variety of devices too.
Cloud-based services for app development
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This includes services such as storage, security, and backup. IaaS is an important part of web architecture. Businesses get servers in which they can run their applications without giving the operational costs when choosing this service.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): Provides a platform for application creation. You can deploy your app at a low cost and significantly reduce the amount of coding.
Software as a Service (SaaS): Can be rented on a per month or per user basis. Applications managed by a third-party vendor are delivered through the internet. Can reduce the time spent on processes such as installing, updating etc.
Cloud application development
Now you already know that cloud applications offer several benefits for your business. However, these advantages can be taken away by bad development practices. If a cloud application is developed in the wrong way, it is more likely that it will handicap your business than offering you any advantages.
So to ensure the quality of the cloud application, the cloud application development companies should follow certain principles.
Cloud application development: Dos
Decoupling
One of the purposes of cloud applications is to store data separately, remotely, and safely. By storing the data on your application, you are not only sabotaging the purpose but also making your apps slower as it now has to handle data and operations. By separating data from the app you are making your app function faster as it now has to only take care of the processes it intended to do.
Separate logs
Technology is not immune to errors. Even if the application is built by the best developers, there are chances for bugs due to reasons out of their control. So keeping a log file of things is very important for every application.
However, if you store the logs in the local system, it is less accessible compared to storing them on third-party log aggregators. The use of third-party log aggregators will prevent situations where the logs are lost forever, become partially corrupted, not synchronized, or just simply not accessible.
Futureproofing
One of the reasons why businesses choose cloud applications is that they are easy to scale. However, scaling is not an easy task. If there are restrictions like the ones caused by bad coding, selection of improper platforms, components, or the environment, the application will be difficult or even impossible to scale. So, it is important that future-proofing should be implemented from the conceptualization phase itself.
Optimization
The advantage of cloud applications is that the data is stored remotely and separately. However, if poorly executed this can turn into a disadvantage.
Data is an important component of an application. To work as intended, the application should be able to communicate easily with the server and process the data faster. So it is important that each component of a cloud application is working as intended and the communication between these components is properly optimized.
Security
As the data are stored remotely and separately away from the local system, there is a higher risk of data vulnerability. To overcome this, the developers should adopt the best ways to make the communication between the app and server secure. Also, as cloud servers are a favourite target for hackers and people with malicious intent, you should always choose cloud services providers who follow strict security measures and adopt the latest technologies at a fast pace.
Go generic
Use a common standard for your codes, platforms, and topology. This will ensure that the app you built will fit in most cloud environments. It will also help you with the scalability of your applications as mostly the process will be automated and certain standards need to be followed.
Vulnerability checks
Periodically checks for vulnerabilities. Since Cloud applications work with the help of the internet there is a higher risk of data breaches and security exploit.
Consultation
Cloud technology is a fast-growing industry. New technologies are emerging day by day and the services are becoming complex. However, the client may not be aware of the complexity of cloud technologies. So, always try to educate them on the benefits of the cloud, what features will benefit them, what are the limitations and how the cost can be calculated.
Cloud application development: Don’t s
Security and privacy
Never neglect data security and privacy. Two of the major concerns when it comes to cloud applications are how secure the application is and whether it values user privacy. Follow strict policies on security and privacy and always adopt the latest trends in these fields.
Downtime
Server outages can be common. However, it must be avoided when it comes to cloud applications as without server connectivity the application will not work. For most businesses, it will affect their day-to-day functions and revenue.
Complexities
You won’t be seeing yourself moving to the cloud anytime sooner. However, that does not eliminate the possibility of you adopting cloud as the requirement changes in the future. As mentioned earlier, you should always keep this possibility in mind and avoid any complexity in the system which will hinder the process.
Don’t test your luck
There are several companies offering almost the same cloud services. But that does not mean that all of them offer the same quality of services. Instead of trusting your instinct you should carefully evaluate your options, study what their services offer, check their customer feedback and review their service level agreement (SLA). Switching between various cloud providers may not be easy and it will cost you a lot of resources and expertise.
Don’t force
Never force all your existing applications to migrate to the cloud. It is common that big corporations have hundreds of applications in their arsenal. However, not all of them will be suitable to migrate to the cloud. A few may not be worth migrating when evaluating the cost and benefits. So, prioritize the applications based on the value when it comes to cloud migration.
Don’t underfund
Never try to save money on cloud migration and the process by underfunding. You should first analyze whether it is beneficial for your business to move to the cloud. If yes, make sure that the process is well-governed, monitored, and implemented. That way you can save more money in the long term and avoid any pitfalls due to quality issues.
Documentation
Never forget to document everything. It will not only help you with reevaluating the process if any pitfall occurs but also help your team with future development. Without documentation, your team will not have any clarity on the limitations of the application and the environment and it will be difficult for them to envisage a roadmap for further development of the application.
Cost
Never forget to start the process with a cost analysis. Approach a good application development company that is an expert in cloud-related services. They can help you with evaluating the cost most accurately as there may be additional or indirect costs that you may miss out on. For example, as a business, you may not know the right cloud architecture for your application or you will not know the additional cost associated with optimizing the application prior to moving it to the cloud. A cloud application development company can easily identify them.
Hiring cloud application development company
Before hiring a cloud application development company, consider some of these points:
Define your goals prior to approaching a cloud application development company. Having a perfect understanding of your goals helps the cloud application developer to plan and execute the project easier.
Analyze if your application is suitable for migrating to a cloud. There might be a need for a complete rewriting of the application.
Select your deployment model-whether it is a private cloud or a public cloud. Private clouds are more costly. Public clouds are less costly but there is a higher risk of security.
Build custom cloud management platforms to keep everything in checks such as the security and application performance.
Prior to deployment, test the cloud app for potential security risks. Testing should also be done to ensure optimal performance.
Before hiring a cloud application development company, always research their credibility. Choose one which is following global standards for data processing and handling.
Make sure that the cloud platforms have containers. Containers are used to divide the applications into components which help in easy deployment.
Conclusion
Moving to the cloud has its own benefits. However, these benefits come with their own complexities. While cloud applications are becoming more popular and they are replacing traditional applications across multiple verticals, businesses need the assistance of an expert in the field to reap the actual benefits of the cloud. AlignMinds has more than a decade of experience in developing best-in-class applications in mobility and cloud platforms. If you are searching for a technology partner for your next project, contact us now.
