Move from Agile to DevOps

Many enterprises are turning to cloud computing platforms to accelerate digital transformation strategies. The cloud promises to provide a consistent set of APIs for developers to innovate around. It also makes it easier to reuse enterprise data more efficiently as part of a more modern software development ecosystem.

"The rise of PaaS [platform as a service], in all its flavors, indicates that the focus of innovation is shifting even further toward software development," said Dave Bartoletti, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "Cloud computing platforms are becoming developer platforms first and foremost, not simply new infrastructure hosting locations or collections of cheap infrastructure."

Cloud computing platforms are differentiating themselves at the developer services level on features like analytics, messaging, functional programming, other middleware, low-code platforms and internet of things. "While infrastructure is still important, we're at a point where infrastructure is not only consumed on demand by developers and business units themselves, but increasingly consumed directly by their apps," Bartoletti said.

Enterprise architects are facing a big challenge with everything about apps changing at once. App development styles are moving from Agile to DevOps. App architectures are moving from monoliths to microservices. App infrastructure is moving from virtual resources to cloud-native container platforms. Leading digital transformers are creating innovation labs where they can test and become experts on all three of these shifts at once.

"You can do one or two of these transformations without the third, but the network and positive reinforcement effects of doing all three in a focused innovation lab environment -- funded differently and with different objectives -- are powerful," Bartoletti said. "Leaders are allowing teams to fail fast and fail often ... and focus on delivering minimum viable products as quickly as possible."