I’ll screen what modernization truly means, wherefore it matters for your business, and however to deliberation astir modernization arsenic your way to AI value.  

Generative AI is sending shockwaves done the concern world, owed successful nary tiny portion to almighty tools that are transforming however we unrecorded and work. As with anterior monolithic paradigm shifts, palmy businesses indispensable accommodate for the future. 

When businesses infuse cutting-edge innovations similar AI into their operations, it tin thrust sustainable, semipermanent growth, futureproof them against economical headwinds, and make lasting competitory advantage. While the marketplace dialog is dominated by unthinkable caller AI-driven services, determination is untapped worth successful the hundreds of millions of existing applications that tin present beryllium modernized and infused with AI.

Without modernization, organizations whitethorn miss retired connected the afloat worth of their investments, lag down the competition, oregon autumn prey to costly disruptions—and they surely won’t beryllium positioned to make tomorrow’s starring AI innovations. Pitfalls similar these are already a world for many: according to the Forrester survey exploring modernization, 1 successful 4 concern decision-makers experienced integer level failures owed to modernization challenges.

Because existent modernization tin (and should) interaction each country of your business, it gets complex, involving everything from processes and systems to orchestration and strategical planning. As a result, galore leaders aren’t definite wherever to begin—which is wherefore we’ve created this blog bid to illustration a people done modernization with AI readiness successful mind. 

In this archetypal blog, I’ll screen what modernization truly means, wherefore it matters for your business, and however to deliberation astir modernization arsenic your way to AI value.

Modernization is simply a holistic approach 

The archetypal measurement connected your modernization travel is to get wide astir what differentiates modernization from much piecemeal approaches. Modernization means updating and improving assets crossed each concern areas truthful they enactment good with evolving integer bundle and the cloud. This is simply a holistic attack that includes people, processes, and skillsets on with data, apps, and infrastructure.

Modernization breathes caller beingness into bequest technologies to premier them for AI

Earlier I mentioned that modernization is captious to the aboriginal of your business—let’s springiness a small inheritance arsenic to why. For decades, businesses grew up alongside purpose-built integer solutions that met the needs of the day. These solutions are present struggling to conscionable existent needs. For example, they can’t easy incorporated the latest AI capabilities due to the fact that they weren’t built for fast-paced innovation cycles. This tech besides often works successful siloes and whitethorn not beryllium capable to process ample amounts of information to enactment the latest intelligent services. Take it from Sapiens, an security level supplier crossed 30 countries: they struggled to innovate due to the fact that their integer practices were established earlier they adopted the cloud. 

Modernization helped Sapiens flooded these issues and premier their operations for AI innovation by migrating, transforming, and distributing their cardinal applications. This allowed them to accelerate their improvement processes and their innovation cycle, since developers could give much clip and resources to improvements alternatively than maintenance.

“Using and investing successful Microsoft Azure tools to automate immoderate of our infrastructure and processes, we managed to chopped our clip to marketplace successful fractional and reduced our operational overhead by astatine slightest 40 percent.”—Michael Mirel, Head of Cloud and DevOps Center of Excellence astatine Sapiens.

They’re not alone—according to an IDC survey connected the benefits of unreality migration and modernization, 41% of organizations mention operational ratio and 30% mention outgo savings arsenic the apical outcomes achieved. When businesses instrumentality this exertion posture, they laic the groundwork for AI and analytics innovation and much agile operations. 

Modernization starts with the cloud, but it doesn’t extremity there 

Migrating to the unreality is indispensable (30% of respondents successful that aforesaid IDC survey reported the unreality eased modernization), but deliberation of the unreality arsenic conscionable 1 facet of driving scale, achieving semipermanent outcomes, and unlocking the imaginable of technologies similar AI. 

Take Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS) arsenic a lawsuit study. They incorporated the unreality arsenic portion of SAS Forward, a wide strategy to assistance accommodate to changing marketplace dynamics and outgo pressures.

“The hose manufacture is highly competitive, to proceed to supply large experiences for travelers, we needed to marque large changes.”—Mikael Perhult, Tech Lead, Cloud astatine SAS – Scandinavian Airlines.

That’s wherefore SAS Forward went beyond unreality migration, modernizing SAS’s databases and apps arsenic a afloat managed level work connected Azure.

“We wanted to alteration the technologies that enactment and link SAS’ systems and services for greater scalability, efficiency, and security, portion paving the mode for innovation for our customers.”—Prakash Ujjwal, Senior Systems Specialist, IT Infrastructure Services. 

Just arsenic SAS went beyond archetypal migration, they besides had to spell beyond the tech itself. This meant a thoughtful reimagining of however their operations could beryllium modernized to maximize investment.

Modernization reshapes much than technology 

While apps and platforms are essential to modernization, businesses should besides align their people, processes, and skillsets to guarantee the full endeavor is moving toward the aforesaid goal. This is particularly existent with AI, since it creates a caller mode of moving that disrupts long-standing routines. In different words, AI is some a catalyst for modernization and accelerator of modernization. 

The probe down the Forrester Application Modernization Checklist supports this idea. One successful 5 decision-makers reported achieving modernization, and those who succeeded said they did truthful due to the fact that they looked astatine the task holistically. They built a wide strategy astir AI and AI training, tied AI intimately to concern outcomes, and utilized cross-org metrics to way and measurement advancement and impact. And crucially, they drew connected enactment from their strategical partners to upgrade their exertion stacks—modernization is excessively important and excessively analyzable to tackle alone. SAS embodied this holistic attack by mounting goals to alteration operations and maintenance, summation wide innovation, and leverage partners to get much retired of their archetypal unreality investments. They succeeded and streamlined developer workflows to alteration continuous betterment portion modernizing hose operations astatine scale.

The close modernization attack unlocks competitory advantage 

When businesses instrumentality a genuinely holistic attack to modernization, transformative outcomes talk for themselves. Sapiens reports that they’re capable to extract deeper insights much easy and thrust much effectual concern decisions, portion SAS built an situation that fosters semipermanent innovation and has improved lawsuit experiences.

I invitation you to proceed charting a modernization people with maine successful the adjacent blog successful our series. We’ll locomotion done circumstantial steps for effectual modernization identified by the Forrester Consulting Application Modernization Checklist that Microsoft commissioned.

• Download the 2024 commissioned Forrester Consulting study: Unlock Competitive Advantage with Application Modernization. 

• Read the accompanying Application Modernization Checklist. 

• Learn astir the benefits of unreality migration and modernization from IDC. 

• Consult the Microsoft Application and Data Modernization: Azure page. 

• Visit the Microsoft Azure Innovate site.