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Continual Modernization Programs Are Key to IT Success

Modernization projects using an incremental and continuous improvement model achieve superior results when compared to other project-based approaches including the ripping and replacing of core business applications, according to the CHAOS2020 Report from Micro Focus and Standish Group.


The report indicates that this infinite flow method to modernizing core business applications has a number of benefits in regards to return of value, customer satisfaction, sustainable innovation and longer application lifespans.

"As we see in our latest research with Standish Group, a continuous and multi-phased modernization methodology delivers incremental value and reduces risk when compared to the alternatives of rewriting or replacing," said Neil Fowler, GM of Application Modernization and Connectivity at Micro Focus. "With application modernization typically being an important first step in an enterprise's larger digital transformation journey, an incremental flow-based model provides a methodology capable of matching the flexibility of today's business climate while ensuring continuous transformative activity."

Multi-decade Standish Group research of over 50,000 participants shows that an infinite flow model ensures ongoing modernization activity, while narrowing the gap between project management and delivery teams. This research is consistent with Micro Focus' own findings where 92 percent of core applications are strategic and 70 percent see modernization as their preferred option.

Key findings of the Endless Modernization research include:

Modernization Projects Yield Significantly Higher Success Rates

Companies replacing a software application and starting from scratch had a 26 percent success and 20 percent failure ratio as opposed to a 71 percent success and 1 percent failure ratio for teams choosing to modernize an existing application rather than fully replacing it.

Rip and Replace Projects Struggle

Only 27 percent of companies choosing a rip and replace strategy saw a high return, with 41 percent reporting a low or very low return on their investment. In comparison, a flow-based modernization methodology returned twice the value on average than other types of software development approaches.

Modernization is a Preferred Path over Ripping and Replacing

45 percent of enterprises ripping and replacing their application software were ultimately disappointed or not satisfied by their results as opposed to 55 percent of organizations choosing modernization responding as satisfied.

Incremental Flow-Based Modernization Approaches Have Numerous Benefits

Rather than running one large modernization project, research shows that enterprises incorporating a series of smaller, microservices or microprojects achieved much better outcomes.

"The demand is for more value, higher customer satisfaction, and lower costs," said Jim Johnson, founder, The Standish Group. "It is our opinion — based on our extensive research and observation of role models — that the move to infinite flow satisfies all three of these demands."

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Over the past few years, large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized the software industry. Given their ability to excel at multi-step reasoning, LLMs have helped enterprises streamline workflows and adapt to the unknown. However, employing such models comes with sky-high costs, latency issues, and limited flexibility. In the realm of IT operations, it is generally wiser to employ smaller, domain-specific models instead ...

For years, DevOps teams operated under a simple assumption: collect enough telemetry, and you can find and fix any problem. That assumption is breaking down. Modern enterprises now operate across microservices, hybrid cloud environments, APIs, Kubernetes, and highly automated delivery pipelines. Releases happen continuously, dependencies shift constantly, and failures spread faster than teams can diagnose them ...

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Let me start with something I've seen play out more times than I can count. A team hits a wall with the cloud. Costs creep up, then spike. Performance starts to feel inconsistent. Someone in finance asks a simple question like "why did this double?" and nobody has a clean answer ... Maybe this isn't the right place for everything. That realization feels like a breakthrough, like you've identified the problem. In reality, you've just identified the starting line ...

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Continual Modernization Programs Are Key to IT Success

Modernization projects using an incremental and continuous improvement model achieve superior results when compared to other project-based approaches including the ripping and replacing of core business applications, according to the CHAOS2020 Report from Micro Focus and Standish Group.


The report indicates that this infinite flow method to modernizing core business applications has a number of benefits in regards to return of value, customer satisfaction, sustainable innovation and longer application lifespans.

"As we see in our latest research with Standish Group, a continuous and multi-phased modernization methodology delivers incremental value and reduces risk when compared to the alternatives of rewriting or replacing," said Neil Fowler, GM of Application Modernization and Connectivity at Micro Focus. "With application modernization typically being an important first step in an enterprise's larger digital transformation journey, an incremental flow-based model provides a methodology capable of matching the flexibility of today's business climate while ensuring continuous transformative activity."

Multi-decade Standish Group research of over 50,000 participants shows that an infinite flow model ensures ongoing modernization activity, while narrowing the gap between project management and delivery teams. This research is consistent with Micro Focus' own findings where 92 percent of core applications are strategic and 70 percent see modernization as their preferred option.

Key findings of the Endless Modernization research include:

Modernization Projects Yield Significantly Higher Success Rates

Companies replacing a software application and starting from scratch had a 26 percent success and 20 percent failure ratio as opposed to a 71 percent success and 1 percent failure ratio for teams choosing to modernize an existing application rather than fully replacing it.

Rip and Replace Projects Struggle

Only 27 percent of companies choosing a rip and replace strategy saw a high return, with 41 percent reporting a low or very low return on their investment. In comparison, a flow-based modernization methodology returned twice the value on average than other types of software development approaches.

Modernization is a Preferred Path over Ripping and Replacing

45 percent of enterprises ripping and replacing their application software were ultimately disappointed or not satisfied by their results as opposed to 55 percent of organizations choosing modernization responding as satisfied.

Incremental Flow-Based Modernization Approaches Have Numerous Benefits

Rather than running one large modernization project, research shows that enterprises incorporating a series of smaller, microservices or microprojects achieved much better outcomes.

"The demand is for more value, higher customer satisfaction, and lower costs," said Jim Johnson, founder, The Standish Group. "It is our opinion — based on our extensive research and observation of role models — that the move to infinite flow satisfies all three of these demands."

The Latest

Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

For decades, trust in the digital workplace rested on familiar signals. We trusted faces on video calls, voices on the phone, and emails that appeared to come from people we knew. These cues felt human and intuitive. They anchored how decisions were made, approvals were granted, and access was authorized. AI-powered deepfakes have quietly broken that model ...

Cloud migration was supposed to be a one-way door. For most enterprises, it turns out it isn't. Cloud data repatriation is a real and growing trend. A new survey ... finds that 89% of organizations plan to expand their on-premises infrastructure footprint over the next two years — and 75% have already moved at least some workloads back from public cloud in the past 24 months. The findings point to a broad rethinking of where data belongs ...

Over the past few years, large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized the software industry. Given their ability to excel at multi-step reasoning, LLMs have helped enterprises streamline workflows and adapt to the unknown. However, employing such models comes with sky-high costs, latency issues, and limited flexibility. In the realm of IT operations, it is generally wiser to employ smaller, domain-specific models instead ...

For years, DevOps teams operated under a simple assumption: collect enough telemetry, and you can find and fix any problem. That assumption is breaking down. Modern enterprises now operate across microservices, hybrid cloud environments, APIs, Kubernetes, and highly automated delivery pipelines. Releases happen continuously, dependencies shift constantly, and failures spread faster than teams can diagnose them ...

New Relic surveyed IT and engineering leaders from the media and entertainment (M&E) sector to understand what's working — and where challenges persist with their observability practices. The findings reveal how M&E organizations are navigating rising platform complexity, audience expectations, and AI-driven change. Below are five takeaways that stand out ...

Let me start with something I've seen play out more times than I can count. A team hits a wall with the cloud. Costs creep up, then spike. Performance starts to feel inconsistent. Someone in finance asks a simple question like "why did this double?" and nobody has a clean answer ... Maybe this isn't the right place for everything. That realization feels like a breakthrough, like you've identified the problem. In reality, you've just identified the starting line ...

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 24, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses network observability tool sprawl ... 

In cloud-native systems, scaling is often as simple as moving a slider. For on-premise databases, the stakes are different. Over-provisioning hardware is expensive. Under-provisioning leads to performance bottlenecks that are difficult to fix once the equipment is in the rack ...

When most people think about cybersecurity, they picture firewalls, encryption, and access controls — technical tools designed to protect systems and data. But beneath the technology lies a deeper set of principles about trust, decision-making, and resilience ... The best leaders don't eliminate risk. They manage it intelligently. And in many ways, cybersecurity offers a surprisingly useful playbook for doing exactly that ...