How to Modernise Your Business With Azure
Introduction
In today's rapidly transforming business landscape, organisations need to adapt and innovate through strategies like legacy app modernisation via cloud-based modernisation techniques like Azure app modernisation to remain competitive. It's not merely app modernisation but a complete business modernisation, even how projects and teams are managed. One way of achieving this is via modernising IT infrastructure to enhance efficiency, agility, and scalability. This restructuring, in other words, digital transformation, is the foundation for organisations looking to provide value to their customers. The global digital transformation market size was $ 2.27 trillion in 2023. The market is expected to reach $ 2.71 trillion in 2024 to $ 12.35 trillion by 2032, with a CAGR of 20.9% during this period. Microsoft Azure, one of the top five cloud platforms, caters to various tools and services for helping organisations transform their workloads and take advantage of modernisation.
Azure modernisation can transform your business operations and ensure future success. Whether it is the upgradation of the IT infrastructure or enhancement of application code using the latest in the IT industry, may it be the microservices using Azure functions, improved real-time data processing through edge computing, logic apps for streamlined digital workflow, use of the managed database, servers, use of cognitive services from Azure, containerisation through docker and Kubernetes or various others, the business must not suffer from the technical debt which can even wholly shut them down. Things like sentiment analysis on real-time data and storing them in the most advanced database like Cosmos DB is what modern-day business requires.
Microsoft Azure, the cloud services provider, enables business modernisation through its services, such as Azure functions, logic apps, Web Apps, Azure Monitor, various Azure services for edge computing, managed databases, serverless, cognitive services, and multiple others.
Let's look into the nitty-gritty of the business modernisation process with Azure.
Steps to Modernise a Business Using Azure?
The business modernisation process is a series of sub-steps in which developers and network engineers work together to upgrade IT Infrastructure, modernise application code, use cognitive services to simplify AI and ML applications and modernise security to leverage businesses with better performance and maximise profit for the stakeholders and customers.
Read on to discover more about the process.
Assessment and Planning
Appropriate determination of the business goals, challenges, and how modernisation will make the business more profitable is needed. Detail is required for requirements like inventory analysis, cloud adoption strategy, target architecture design, cost estimation, and budgeting.
It all starts with the knowledge of the application landscape through analysis of dependencies, codebases, and application functionalities that require modernisation. This is done by a team of business analysts who might be accompanied by developers, database designers, and the project manager. Once the landscape is sorted, the team sets a clear modernisation objective. The questions to be answered are whether the business needs faster deployment, better scalability, or a cost reduction. At Syngis, we deal with Azure, and Azure provides numerous legacy application modernisation approaches apart from other modernisation requirements discussed above. Below are a few examples:
- Lift and Shift: Considered as the fastest approach, this process involves the "as-is" migration of applications to Azure VMs. This requires minimal code changes but has a drawback: The complete cloud benefit might need to be leveraged.
- Re-Platform: Re-platforming is performed when the business orders a slight code modification so that the application better utilises Azure services, whether containerisation or managed databases. This approach is faster than lift and shift and ensures more cloud advantages.
- Refactor: When clients order more in-depth restructuring of the application code to take maximum advantage of the cloud-native architecture via options like microservices and DevOps practices, then refactoring or the repackaging option is required. With this, businesses can hope for the best and most agile performance. However, this requires more budget and can be costly.
While the above are the strategies, tools also need to be picked, such as Azure App service migration assistant for migrating web apps or database migration services. During this phase, network, security, and project and team management changes are also considered, and a proper plan is developed after a complete business process assessment. Changes in project and team management require transforming from monolithic to microservices architecture, shifting from larger teams to smaller teams headed by leaders responsible for their departments.
Migration and Modernisation
The migration method must be selected from lift and shift, re-platform, repurchase, retiring, and hybrid models. Further legacy application modernisation, security enhancement, cognitive service integration, and edge computing implementation all require work. By moving to the cloud using one of the migration methods mentioned above while making the best use of emerging technologies, businesses are modernised, ensuring they use cloud technology efficiently based on scalability, agility, and cost efficiency. As they shift from monolithic architecture to microservices, their project and team management facilities are also modernised.
Management and Optimisation
There is no denying that management of the modernised business and its continuous optimisation is essential, whether it is cloud management using Azure Monitor, cost management using Azure cost management tools, security monitoring using the best security services from Azure or ongoing innovation. Not only is ensuring performance tuning, compliance management, or efficient resource allocation essential, but administrating, monitoring, and controlling cloud resources optimally is essential for perfect modernisation. Moreover, performance must be fine-tuned, and security must be optimised apart from the cost.
Other considerations
Once the modernised business is up and running, other considerations, such as skills and training, change management, compliance, and regulations, are also essential. While employees must be encouraged to learn new skills to cope well with changes, required cultural change is also expected so that all employees can work freely. While we discussed compliance management, regularly complying with government and industry regulations is also essential to avoid legal complications, which requires a regular audit of business functionalities to ensure they comply with such rules and standards.
Once the modernisation is complete, with proper key performance indicators, the ROI for the modernised business will need evaluation as that will provide an accurate picture of whether the modernisation process was successful. Whether using Generative AI to speed up the process or calculating cost via Azure cost management tools, a modernised business will ensure efficient use of each technology, ensuring the company provides their customers with the most cost-effective and efficient solution.
Conclusion
While technology is improving daily, the competition among businesses to offer their customers services at reduced prices is also increasing. As companies strive to ensure cheaper yet more effective solutions for their customers, there is no denying that each requires business modernisation. While most of them are lagging in leveraging modern emerging technologies and removing technical debts via steps like Azure app modernisation, it is heartening to see a record increase in the overall investment from businesses for modernisation. Modernisation, however, is not just using emerging technologies, as it is complete with proper performance tuning, enhanced security and cost optimisation apart from unlimited real-time scaling. Are you looking for your business modernisation? Azure can be your solution. At Syngis Software Development, we provide Azure-based business modernisation leveraging all modern emerging technologies through an optimised cloud-first approach. Contact us now if you want to leverage the maximum out of emerging technologies to provide your customer with the most cost-effective and competitive solutions. Whether legacy applications or complete business modernisation via Azure, we cater to all such requirements at competitive prices.
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