In the current digital age, staying competitive means constantly adapting to new technologies. Cloud modernization is one critical strategy that organizations must adopt to ensure that they can leverage the full potential of modern tools like AI, data analytics, and automation. As businesses face increasing pressure from rapid technological advancements market shifts, embracing cloud modernization becomes not just a choice but a necessity for growth.

What is cloud modernization?

Cloud modernization is the process of reframing or updating legacy systems and applications to take full advantage of the cloud infrastructure. This involves several stages, ranging from migrating on-premises systems to cloud infrastructure, to refactoring applications so they work seamlessly with cloud services [1].
The ultimate goal is to optimize how businesses run their applications, services, and manage data in the cloud, resulting in performance improvements, real-time analytics, and operational efficiencies.

Why cloud?

Cloud modernization offers several key benefits, including:

• Increased revenue: Moving to the cloud places less burden on investment, management, and maintenance in physical infrastructure, which enables organizations to pour their focus on delivering value to users. It has been reported that highly modernized organizations have seen up to a 43% increase in revenue. Additionally, the reduced costs for expensive on-premises hardware and operations can help further save up to 39% in IT spendings [2].
• Scalability and flexibility: Cloud environments can provide nearly unlimited scalability, enabling businesses to adjust resources on demand and handle fluctuations in workloads more effectively. With rapidly changing technology along with shifting market demands, the abilities to expand and adjust are important for an organization to stay ahead of the curve. By offering adaptability, long-term benefits are unparalleled.
• Improved security: Cloud platforms offer enhanced security with advanced measures like encryption, identity management, real-time monitoring, intrusion detection, and regular updates, helping to safeguard data and applications. Reports show that modernizing cloud infrastructure helps reduce incident response time by 13% [2]. Moreover, cloud modernization reduces the necessity for another layer of hardware security, reducing overall risks and costs.
• Real-time analytics: The cloud enables real-time data processing and analytics with powerful computing resources, providing up to 35% faster time to insight [2], which supports quick decision-making and deeper understanding into business operations. This further extends to greater reliability and performance through distributed workloads tailored from usage data analysis.

With the emergence of AI, cloud modernization has shown even more significance. According to The 2023 Cloud Modernization Research Report, 80% of organizations agree that failure to modernize legacy applications will prevent them from fully leveraging AI’s advanced capabilities [3]. With the clear benefits and the undeniable necessity of cloud modernization, it is essential for organizations to make the move as soon as possible.

Cloud Modernization vs Migration - What’s the difference? 

Besides cloud modernization, cloud migration is another approach to utilize the cloud. While some have used the two terms interchangeably, there are definite distinctions:

Cloud Modernization Strategies 

Cloud modernization is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Different types of strategies address different business needs and application complexities. According to Microsoft, there exists three different scopes regarding cloud modernization [4]:

• Process Modernization: Process modernization involves adopting a DevOps methodology to improve the way development and operations teams work together. This helps in reducing the total cost of ownership of workloads and maximizing the efficiency.
• Application Modernization: This strategy involves leveraging Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions to modernize applications. PaaS allows organizations to build, deploy, and manage applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure, providing ease of scalability and maintenance. Legacy applications will be transformed into cloud-native solutions, enabling them to use the full capabilities of the cloud, such as serverless computing and microservices.
• Database Modernization: Database modernization focuses on adopting database PaaS and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions to manage databases more effectively. Modern cloud-based databases offer real-time analytics, high availability, and flexible scaling, which significantly improves performance. This strategy helps businesses enhance their data architecture, ensuring that databases can handle growing data volumes and complex analytics workloads.

Cloud Modernization with FPT Software 

Cloud modernization is no longer a luxury but a necessity for keeping a competitive edge in the digital age. Businesses considering to move to the cloud must carefully evaluate their current state and choose the right modernization strategy that aligns with their long-term goals. While the process can be resource-intensive at first, the long-term benefits are worth the investment.

Additionally, to successfully modernize, businesses need a reliable companion. With an extensive network with trusted partners, including Microsoft, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, AWS, and over 1,000 certified cloud engineers, FPT Software can provide comprehensive cloud services, ranging from system orchestration to advanced cloud-based problem resolution, to help unlock the full potential of organizations.

Discover more about how you can accelerate their digital transformation journey with cloud here: FPT Software Cloud Services and Solutions.