DevOps as Step One to Modernization

If you’re in IT, you probably can’t go more than a few hours without hearing about application modernization. But with a variety of recommended approaches for application modernization from various technology vendors, knowing where to start can quickly become overwhelming. 

From my point of view, one place to start, no matter where you are on your journey to hybrid cloud, is implementing DevOps across your entire IT organization. According to a recent IBM Institute for Business value study, a hybrid cloud platform has the potential to unlock more than 2.5x more value than the traditional cloud approach. By leveraging DevOps across the enterprise, you’re helping to improve developer productivity – one of the key drivers of the 2.5x increase in value. 

So how do you get there? Here are three steps to get started: 

First, take a look at the existing team, and invest in training as needed.

Many of our clients already have a robust skill pipeline, however, talent can sometimes exist in silos, oriented too closely around specific technologies – creating a perception that you don’t have the right talent in your organization. 

By moving away from technology-oriented teams (ones that are focused on a particular type of technology, may it be public cloud or on-premises) to a structure that is flexible and technology-agnostic – you can re-focus your talent pool to deliver specific solutions and results without having to invest in new hires. 

However, for those teams who do have a true mismatch of skillsets, IT leaders need to begin investing in skill development programs that match actual demand patterns. What works best from my experience is a combination of internally run programs, self-directed training, and external education programs to build a successful digital transformation culture.  

Next, leverage industry-standard tools.  

Similar to having siloed teams of talent working across cloud and on-premises – having those groups using a mix of open source and proprietary tools creates an even bigger knowledge gap. By standardizing onto open source and modern tools – for example, bringing common IDEs and automation capabilities like Ansible across the enterprise, you’re enabling any enterprise developer across your tech stack to build, test, deploy, manage, automate and scale applications without special skills. And we’re only bringing more robust capabilities and integrations to IBM Z to create a common developer experience. 

For example, with IBM Wazi Developer, developers can use popular open source tools as part of a standard CI/CD pipeline to develop and test applications in a containerized z/OS sandbox running on Red Hat OpenShift using a choice of IDEs spanning VS Code, Eclipse, and Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces. This is a paradigm shift that has ushered in the future of development on IBM Z. There have been more than 28,000 installs of the Z Open Editor VS Code extension that provides COBOL, PL/I, HLASM, and REXX language servers as well as tools for IBM Z development.  

In addition, since announcing Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z a year ago, there have been more than 11,000 downloads of the ibm_zos_core collection on Ansible Galaxy, making it the 78th most downloaded out of 978 collections. We’re also seeing promising momentum for other industry standard tools like GitLab Ultimate for IBM Cloud Paks, which we announced in January for IBM Z. 

Finally, reinforce learning and culture.  

A cultural change is not going to happen overnight. In order for a digital transformation to be successful, culture and process must be reinforced, both at the individual level and organizational levels of management. In particular, I believe a focus on amplifying learning as a function of continual iteration and empowering your team to be more than project executers are the strongest recommendations I can make for the personnel and organizational changes needed to drive transformation. 

Once you have DevOps in place across the enterprise, you’ll be much more prepared to make the most of your application modernization journey and to tackle the other sources of value on the way to hybrid cloud. 

What have been your best tips for adopting DevOps across the enterprise?