Modernizing IT for Digital Transformation

Note: Opinions expressed in this article are of my own and don’t necessarily associate with my current employer or any of my previous employers.

The traditional model of an Enterprise IT is always envisioned as a closed network with Data Centers, Networking Infrastructure (Switches, Routers, Firewalls etc.), Servers (App, Web, Database, etc.) Data Stores, Enterprise Applications, Desktops, Laptops, phone systems, Ticketing systems, etc.  All these hardware and software components (on premise solutions) are managed by different teams (IT Administrators, Network Administrators, Software Developers, System Administrators etc.) across the organization.

This model of Enterprise IT has existed for many decades but, the evolution of technologies is forcing organizations to think out of the box and to adopt modern engineering practices to compete with markets in their respective industries.

So, what does this mean to Enterprise IT departments?

“Transformation”

Technology adoption, market competitiveness, customer expectations/engagement, employee empowerment, acceleration to market, Operation Excellence are all driving forces for Digital Transformation. As part of this digital transformation, companies must be prepared and be willing to accept the change. At the same time leadership must raise awareness among all of their employees on the cultural shift and what exactly Digital Transformation means to them and their customers. Employees must have a clear vision and direction on what “Transformation” means and how does it impact them (“employees”) and how should they be prepared for a cultural shift.

Knowingly or unknowingly the journey of transformation has already begun at many organizations and it is up to employees to realize the fact and be prepared for the change. “The days of doing the same thing, again and again are gone.”

Business drives transformation through People, Process and Technology.  Ultimately the goal for many organizations is “Simplification”. Simplification could be to move away from a layered, controlled bureaucratic structure to a more leaner structure.

Of many functions across the company, Enterprise IT is one that who drives heavy administrative and work-intensive processes. The traditional structure of Enterprise IT is a very layered approach where one team is depending on another team to complete a task. At times, it becomes very bureaucratic involving too many resources to solve simple problems and which results in ultimately slowing down the entire project or a work effort.

It is important for a C-level, especially in medium and large organizations to understand their entire enterprise landscape and their business intensive processes which are causing huge capital expenditure (Capex) and operational expenditure (Opex) costs to the business. Many a times organizations fail to solve the root cause of the problem instead. Instead, they focus on fixing the symptoms by adding human resources (bodies); which dramatically increase the operational cost and as well creates a huge technical debt across the organization.

All of this being said it is pivotal for C-level and their leadership teams in an organization to clearly understand the future of their business, where industries are moving towards, technology evolutions and how they can “Modernize their organizations in this digital era.”

The disruption of cloud computing technologies has lined up opportunities for many organizations to simplify, secure, scale and build reliable systems with much-reduced capital investments. One perfect example is Netflix which was born and operated in public cloud environments even today. Of course, this might not apply for every organization out there.

My prediction is that many organizations will adapt to “Information Technology as a Service” (ITaaS). ITaaS is more about consuming services instead of building them with-in your organization. It is very similar to any other “X as a Service” (IaaS, PaaS or SaaS). This model allows organizations to focus on their high valued and high priority goals and objectives instead of spending time on low priority efforts. ITaaS drastically reduces the capital expenditure and allows companies to invest in high valued projects resulting in higher ROI.

This transformation of adopting ITaaS is going to be a breakthrough for many organization from a financial standpoint but, it also comes with a cost for their employees whose roles are in supporting the IT functions in an organization; especially if you are working for medium and large size organizations.

Office365 is a perfect example for ITaaS; the traditional model of Microsoft Office software was on Compact Disks (CD) and CD’s were used for installing software in some corporate network environments. Now, O365 is consumed as Software as a Service (SaaS) which is a managed service through Microsoft. What if we Extend O365 model to “Desktop as a Service (DaaS)”; what if Windows 10 is delivered as DaaS or Platform as a Services (PaaS) by Microsoft? How does this affect the Enterprise IT workforce who are supporting End Computing Devices (Desktops, Laptops, Antivirus Software, or any Third-Party Applications for desktops etc.).

The suite of solutions provided by Microsoft cohesively can create an entire eco system that an enterprise requires. The whole ecosystem can be delivered as a Service by Microsoft or by any cloud service provider as “Platform as a Service” through cloud computing technologies; which can be consumed by small, medium and large organizations.

Disruption is inevitable, each and every one of us must keep abreast of the technology evolutions, industry transformations and must keep thinking about the future (at least two years ahead) in our current roles, and what you want to be in the next three years. Adopt the culture of being fast, robust and willing to take risks with caution.

The DevOps model has disrupted many organizations forcing the cultural shift to be more agile and fail fast, by modernizing the practices and technologies to deliver applications and services at high velocity. DevOps has created a huge cultural shift across many organizations drastically changing the traditional approaches that were followed for decades.

The roles of System Admin, Database Admin, .Net Developer, IT Admin, etc. are quickly vanishing or vanished in some organizations. IT staff must quickly learn to effectively manage, operate and own the complete stack end-to-end from the physical layer to all the way to the application layer.

Change is inevitable…. Together let’s embrace the change.