Enterprises press ahead with modernizing applications

A new study from cloud solutions provider AHEAD shows that most enterprises are committed to modernizing their application software portfolios, but there are still challenges to overcome and improvements to be made.

Based on a survey conducted by Hanover Research the report shows only 37 percent of respondents are very satisfied with how fast they are currently delivering new software or new features.

Delivering better quality software faster is a top priority for 79 percent of respondents as only 40 percent of respondents are fully satisfied with their current software quality. Fewer than half (42 percent) are fully satisfied with the security of their application software, and as such, 48 percent identified DevSecOps - the integration of security early and often in software development -- as an active initiative.

Barriers to improving applications include inflexible and complex legacy environments (35 percent). A quarter of respondents (25 percent) identify too much custom software and 23 percent list infrastructure that can't keep up with the demand for new features, as additional challenges.

Top software challenges include current IT processes taking too much time (31 percent), followed by test and release processes taking too long (29 percent). Additionally, the survey finds that there is a higher focus on migrating applications to the cloud (59 percent) than on other efforts such as rolling out continuous integration and deployment (43 percent), and containers and container orchestration (33 percent).

Some 25 percent of enterprises don't have an overarching strategy for modernizing applications. This number increases to 31 percent when looking at companies with $5 billion or more in revenue. Yet investing in a strategy before embarking on any IT project ensures cross-functional alignment and reduces risks.

"Today's enterprises are bogged down with complex legacy software, with software developers spending nights and weekends wrestling outdated IT infrastructure," says Tom Pohlmann, executive vice president of customer success at AHEAD. "A move to cloud native apps and platforms, as well as adoption of DevOps practices, present the best opportunity to keep pace with agile, cloud-born competitors."

You can read more in the full report which is available on the AHEAD site.

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