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In the first two parts of this series, we looked at the human and experiential sides of Cloud transformation; how empowering internal teams and leveraging customer data can drive meaningful change. But even the best strategies will stall without the right technical foundation. In this final instalment, we turn our attention to the platform itself.
Part 3: Legacy platforms
Leveraging the Cloud means more than simply running your existing servers on someone else’s hardware. To truly unlock the benefits of the Cloud, solutions must be modernised to take advantage of its inherent flexibility.
Drawing on insights from our recent Cloud pacesetter’s handbook, this article explores how platform modernisation drives increased agility, resiliency and efficiency by building platforms that fully take advantage of the Cloud.
Evolving beyond legacy infrastructure
Cloud platform modernisation represents a fundamental shift in how organisations approach their IT infrastructure, applications, and services. It's more than just moving to the Cloud; it's about reimagining and optimising your entire estate to meet today's business challenges and prepare for tomorrow's opportunities.
At its core, Cloud platform modernisation involves transforming legacy systems and traditional infrastructure into Cloud-native architectures that leverage modern technologies and practices, enabling more agile, resilient, and efficient solutions.
Key components of Cloud platform modernisation
Cloud native architecture
Legacy systems should be redesigned and updated to take full advantage of the Cloud. This could mean breaking them into smaller, more flexible microservices and containerising applications. It could also involve taking advantage of Cloud-native offerings, such as serverless computing, managed services and resources that scale automatically in line with demand. The end result is greater agility, reduced operational overheads, and improved reliability.
Infrastructure as code
Moving beyond traditional on-premises data centres, organisations can embrace infrastructure-as-code and software-defined networking. This shift reduces manual configuration; with everything defined in code, legacy resources that no-one dares to touch can be a thing of the past. This also ensures that environments can be spun up and down on demand, with development, testing and production reliably identical.
Automated deployments and CI/CD (continuous integration/delivery)
A downstream benefit of embracing infrastructure as code is that it unlocks automated deployments, and ultimately CI/CD. By automating deployments and associated testing, resources can be deployed repeatably, more frequently, more quickly and more reliably than ever before. In the case of CI/CD, code is deployed on demand, all the way to production, without human input. This all leads to developers spending more time delivering value and less time deploying and debugging.
The benefits of Cloud platform modernisation
With the 2023 DORA State of DevOps Report finding that flexible infrastructures predict a 30% increase in organisational performance, it’s not really about being in the Cloud, but how you use the Cloud. Platform modernisation is not just a nice to have, it’s a catalyst of business success, driven by the following factors:
Enhanced business agility
Organisations can respond more quickly to market changes and customer needs. New features and services can be deployed in hours rather than months, with scaling happening automatically in response to demand.
Cost optimisation through FinOps
Modern Cloud platforms enable financial accountability by implementing FinOps practices. This is a collaborative approach between finance, technology and business teams to optimise resource utilisation and cost management.
FinOps practices include real-time monitoring of Cloud spend, implementation of automated cost controls, and data-driven decisions about resource allocation. Organisations are able to assign costs to the correct cost centre, set up budget alerts, and forecast future Cloud costs.
This systematic approach to financial operations in the Cloud helps maximise the value of Cloud investments while maintaining operational efficiency and informing business decisions.
Improved security and compliance
Cloud providers invest heavily in security infrastructure and compliance certifications that would be costly for individual organisations to maintain. Modern Cloud platforms offer advanced security features, automated compliance monitoring, and - especially with managed services - regular updates to protect against emerging threats.
Better customer experience
With improved performance, reliability, and faster deployment of new features, organisations can deliver better experiences to their customers. Developers are able to spend more time delivering value to customers, and less time fighting to get code running.
Innovation enablement
Access to cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced analytics becomes much easier with flexible Cloud platforms. Organisations can experiment with new capabilities and bring innovative solutions to market faster, without fundamental refactoring and significant upfront investment.
Modernise or fall behind
Modernising your Cloud platform is becoming less of an option, and more of a pre-requisite for success. Those who successfully embrace this transformation position themselves to maximise their customer experience, while operating more efficiently, and adapting more quickly to changing market conditions than their competitors.
At AND Digital, we offer an end-to-end service that combines strategic insight, technological capability, and cultural change to help you build a future-proof Cloud strategy. Our approach not only optimises your platform, but also drives long-term customer relationships and business growth. Contact us today to discover how we can partner with you on your journey to success.
