Modernizing Infrastructure for the Digital Enterprise

Rationalization and modernization of legacy IT is a critical prerequisite for successful IT transformation. Create a modernization plan that aligns with overall strategy.

Effective approaches to legacy systems

Technology portfolio modernization and rationalization is the number one DX challenge for CIOs today. IT organizations need to create an IT modernization and rationalization plan that aligns with their overall DX strategy. Based on IDC’s research, 83% of enterprises are rationalizing their technology infrastructure; however, only 35% report that their approach to rationalization is effective.

What: CIOs and other high-level IT leaders will find a framework for modernization and rationalization of infrastructure; including KPIs for each of IDC’s top seven success areas most critical to infrastructure modernization efforts. Key is developing a balance between legacy and modern approaches in a continuous transformation process for IT, given that few organizations can rip out all existing systems and start fresh. Peer advice and considerations for roles and processes, operation plans, data services, system build paradigms and infrastructure technologies are included.

Why: Rationalization of legacy IT, both applications and infrastructure, is a critical prerequisite for successful IT transformation. IDC believes that from a practical and business perspective, modernization and rationalization enable IT to deliver innovative digital transformation products and competitive IT services at optimum cost. To better achieve economic and business benefits, CIOs need to focus on modernization, not just rationalization.

How: To undergo the modernization of your infrastructure for the digital enterprise, the organization needs to take the following steps:

• Establish the metrics that measure the effectiveness of your infrastructure modernization program
• Develop a continuous process for IT infrastructure modernization
• Modernize IT infrastructure using newer "build and deploy" paradigms
• Reinvent talent and processes to reduce risk and accelerate the development and deployment of business applications
• Transform IT governance and operations