In today’s digital economy, companies disrupt entire industries through the development of applications that convert legacy business models into lean, agile, digitized processes. Uber and Lyft, for example, have transformed the transportation industry without owning a single car, forcing auto manufacturers, rental car companies, and taxi services to rethink how they serve their customers. Undertaking this type of digital transformation, however, is complicated and requires companies to evolve in three key areas:
- Applications: Requiring new methods for development, continuous updates, delivery, and integration.
- Platforms: Modernizing existing infrastructure and transitioning advantageous systems and services to the cloud.
- Processes: Building agility into operations for IT and all business units.
This transformation can be difficult because of the intricacies unique to each organization and the resistance to change when goals have not been clearly defined. Moreover, evolution is not merely a change in the organization’s approach to technology but a reimagining of its role in the emerging digital economy. Technology is the tool organizations use to support these changes in processes, products, services, markets, and even business models.
In this digital economy, we expect the continued rise of digital disruptors like Airbnb and Netflix, along with unforeseen modernization supporting societal changes and demands from healthcare to green energy. Furthermore, responsive strategies to trends in the external world will spawn opportunities and whole new industries. Fortunately, today’s enterprise companies have an abundance of digital tools at relatively low costs to respond to these trends.
Migrating IT environments to the cloud, or multiple clouds, ensures these diverse resources are available at scale. But the migration and support process can be complicated, both during the migration and afterward, once the environment is fully operational. During day-to-day operations, IT staff must manage applications within a container orchestration platform, isolating them from the underlying operating environment for easy portability between different cloud domains.
Additionally, although the emerging DevOps model for managing applications and infrastructure is ideal for creating a lean, services-driven strategy, it can be problematic if not encompassing multiple clouds like Azure and AWS. Many organizations turn to open APIs or design interfaces to provide access to services for partners and customers, no matter what infrastructure each uses. Along with primary tools required for digital transformation, today’s enterprises also need to acquire several secondary tools to ensure a smooth working environment, like security and data protection, analytics, automation, and disaster recovery.
Support for artificial intelligence (AI) and a vast array of microservices to drive applications for the Internet of Things (IoT) will also permeate this cloud ecosystem.
How can enterprise companies ensure they have the right digital transformation toolkit for today while anticipating their future needs? Digital technology expertise is difficult to come by, and even more challenging, finding the skills to integrate different tools quickly and smoothly into a cohesive working environment.
The most effective way to navigate your digital transformation path is to align your company with a knowledgeable partner to identify and implement the right tools and ensure they are utilized to produce optimal results. As a digital transformation leader, CBTS provides the expertise to avoid the pitfalls experienced by early adopters and tailors a transition strategy for the unique requirements of the business model and legacy infrastructure.
Most businesses have extensive knowledge of their legacy tools and applications but lack the expertise for managing a full digital ecosystem. By partnering with CBTS, your enterprise gains insight into the emerging digital toolkit and the vision to build a transformational environment to compete in the new digital economy.
Download our e-book to discover how CBTS can help you modernize your infrastructure and applications to take advantage of today’s emerging digital transformation tools.