We live in a time when applications reign supreme. More and more of our interactions with business are done digitally via an app. Your software is now the face of your business. But how does your current software reflect on your brand and reputation? Does it give you competitive edge against more nimble, newer challengers?
Recently, CA Technologies and Forrester conducted a survey to evaluate the impact of software modernization on a number of key business metrics. Forrester conducted in-depth interviews with 212 enterprise commercial firms globally. The findings were fascinating, and require us to rethink the way we develop, deploy, and refresh enterprise software.
Some of these findings include:
■ How fast application development cycle times are a key factor in business revenue and growth
■ How development cycle times strongly correlate with the level of modern software in IT
■ How modernizing enterprise software can provide a competitive advantage
■ How maintenance costs can be reduced from software modernization
Just mull this over: the faster-growing companies had application development cycles that were 29 percent shorter than those in slower growing companies.
With these benefits of software modernization, why haven't most enterprises adapted? Forrester mentioned two reasons: 1) most enterprises aren't in a position to adapt to market trends, and 2) often, enterprise IT has a mantra of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Legacy infrastructure and software that served the organization well in the past to obtain efficiencies and vertical integrations can now impede change today. And older ideals and IT stability won't help you compete again new market entrants that bring along new technology, new channels, and new offerings.
As Forrester states in its research findings: "Simply staying up to date is insufficient to remain modernized. Modernized software is software that allows the firm to quickly react to business needs and business opportunities as it tries to win, serve, and retain customers."
The study then points out that "while revenue and profitability are measures of past performance, agility positions a firm to better react to both market opportunities and threats."
What does all this have to do with APM? Remember that just launching applications isn't going to bring success. You have to monitor the performance of those applications. More importantly, understand the experience your end-users are having with those applications.
But if your development team and operation teams are working in silos, is software lifecycle really modern? Can you achieve the next level of customer satisfaction? A DevOps culture must come into play.
To truly modernize your software, you have to modernize the way your app development and operations teams work. In a DevOps world, you can incorporate real-user data from APM into the development lifecycle of applications to deliver quality apps that drive loyalty and revenue. Using a DevOps philosophy with the right tools and communication, you will be able to launch high quality apps, capture the exact KPIs to need to measure customer experience, and speed app delivery.
The application economy isn't just a trend. It is real. To survive, you have to modernize software to speed application development cycles, and implement application performance management across Dev and Ops to drive quality and delight customers.
Aruna Ravichandran is VP, Product & Solutions Marketing, DevOps, CA Technologies.
