Technology is moving at a breakneck pace and there is nothing to indicate it will ever slow down. With 90 per cent of new apps slated to be cloud native by 2025, companies are challenged to be resilient and agile enough to meet business and customer expectations.
“This is a critical challenge,” says Jim Love, CIO of ITWC, “and the current reality is that more often than not, we’re working in what amounts to a hybrid environment.”
Love moderated an October 8th webinar titled From reactive mode to full transformation: How to accelerate your digital journey. The event’s expert panel consisted of three key leaders from BMC Software: Andre Joly, Director Canada, Richard Montbeyre, Chief Privacy Officer, and Greg DeaKyne, Helix Discovery Product Manager. Rounding out the panel were Ken Daughtry, VP of Strategic Development for Voice Foundry and Jim Huang, Principal Partner Solutions Architect for AWS.
Andre Joly set the stage with a compelling forecast for 2025. “Two thirds of companies will deploy software daily,” he said. “More than 80 per cent of code will be externally sourced and there will be 1.6 times more developers.”
According to Joly, the rapid pace of change is forcing IT professionals into a pattern of extinguishing fires instead of proactively setting up the business to take advantage of new technologies. It’s imperative, he said, for enterprises and organizations to break that cycle.
Jim Huang followed up with a holistic view of AWS global architecture, describing a Shared Responsibility Model that puts the onus on both AWS and customers to ensure security and compliance. In referencing PIPEDA, a Canadian law relating to data privacy, Huang shed light on the distinct roles played in compliance and IT management. “AWS is responsible for security of the cloud,” he said. “Customers are responsible for security in the cloud.”
Building on the idea of collaboration, Richard Montbeyre described the partnership between BMC and AWS as accelerating the digital transformation journey and ensuring that data is protected to the highest standard. In addition to the protection consistently enforced by AWS, BMC offers the most recognized privacy compliance certifications, a dedicated privacy office, a strict due diligence process, a proven and reliable incident management plan, and a commitment to assisting customers. On another positive note, customers are now able to fully benefit from BMC’s Helix SaaS solutions while leveraging integration with key AWS services such as AWS Systems Manager Agent.
All speakers agreed that it is no longer optional to become a digital enterprise. BMC has identified three traits for success in the next wave of change: agility, customer centricity, and having a system that allows for actionable insights. It’s also important for enterprises and organizations to change the way they are doing IT. “Nobody can afford to spend a week training to use a new application,” said DeaKyne. “It has to be intuitive and easy.”
With the fast pace of technology innovations, it may be tempting to look before you leap, but Joly cautioned against uninformed decisions. “If you don’t have a solid discovery tool, you are basically walking in the dark,” he said.
Discovery is critical, not only to migration success, but also to optimizing the cloud environment. And once in the cloud, ongoing discovery will enable future migrations. There are challenges to be sure, in integrating legacy systems, freeing applications from dependencies, securely storing and processing data, and ensuring compliance. The pay-off is succeeding in the new normal and having the tools to make truly smart, data-driven, business decisions.