What is Digital Transformation?
Wikipedia defines ‘Digital Transformation’ as ‘the adoption of digital technology, transforming services or businesses, replacing non-digital or manual processes with digital processes and or replacing older digital technologies. Digital solutions, through automation, deliver newer types of innovation and creativity and do not simply enhance and support traditional methods.’
Why Digital Transformation?
With the ‘invention’ of the Cloud, we have seen persistent innovations in Information Technology. These are challenging, improving, and enhancing organizations in the way they do business. Many enterprises, which started early, have disrupted the specific industry/service and have proved more beneficial than others.
While primary reasons for triggering digital transformation for enterprises are- improving customer experience, creating innovative products and services, or staying competitive, it can also be used for other reasons, such as – removing technical debt and optimizing cost, etc.
How Microsoft Azure is helping with digital transformation
Whatever may be the reason, like any transformation, digital transformation also needs careful planning and investment. Using Microsoft Azure Cloud, an enterprise can
Save on Cost Capital investment (hardware and software cost) Labor cost Time spent in building and managing infrastructure
In addition to cost, there are additional benefits of implementing Microsoft Azure Cloud e.g. – Faster time to market for new products & services, flexibility, rapid scaling of infrastructure as needed to support change in business demand.
Microsoft Azure is often referred to as Azure and is a cloud-computing service operated by Microsoft for hosting applications and infrastructure services. The Azure cloud platform has more than 200 products and cloud services designed to help enterprises bring new solutions to build, run and manage applications across multiple clouds, on-premises and at the edge, with the tools and frameworks of your choice.
Services offered by Microsoft Azure fall under three categories:
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service)
IaaS Offerings such as Azure VMs, provide customers the flexibility to deploy bespoke applications/solutions that meet their specific requirements.
Furthermore, Azure PaaS Offerings (Azure Native services) bring in real value and benefits for the customers. For example, building a Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence platform, that might need a lot of time, effort, and money for a data center or traditional model, is readily available to consume on Microsoft Azur, for e.g., Azure Cognitive Services, Machine Learning Service, Azure Applied AI Services, etc.
Microsoft Azure offers ready-to-use technology platforms like IoT, Big Data Analytics, AI/ML, Blockchain, Media & Content Services, and many more.
In theory, Cloud migration and adoption may sound simple and straightforward, but thorough planning is essential for successful digital transformation. As per the reports published by Analysts like Gartner and others, many of the cloud transformations over the last couple of years have failed due to poor planning and/or lack of skilled resources.
Coforge’s industry-focused ‘Journey to Cloud’ framework helps the client move their business swiftly and safely to the cloud. As depicted in the diagram below, the ‘Journey to cloud’ framework covers all aspects of the Cloud journey, starting from Strategy and Planning to the ongoing management & operations.
There is no doubt that the cloud helps enterprises accelerate their digital transformation journey. However, keeping the business requirements and objective in mind, cloud strategy & planning should be done during the first phase. A decision should be made whether to go with a specific public cloud or with a hybrid cloud approach or multi-cloud approach.
In the next phase, detailed discovery and assessment of infrastructure as well as applications should be done including TCO analysis for the potential target clouds.
In the past few years, there has been an inclination toward Lift & Shift (rehost) approach for cloud migrations. However, this approach does not provide cost savings and cannot be considered as the final step in the digital transformation journey for an enterprise. Coforge’s unique and detailed discovery and assessment not only focuses on Lift & Shift migration but emphasizes on Infrastructure and Application modernization by leveraging Cloud-native
services and databases. Increased use of Cloud Native Services provides real benefits in terms of cost-saving and simpler operation management.
Completing the migration to Cloud should not be considered the end of the digital transformation project. A cloud operating model that addresses the challenges of Security, Compliance, Governance, and Cost Management should be designed and implemented. Coforge’s Cloud Management & Optimization solution not only addresses all the challenges stated above but also brings a cultural shift through SRE Principles (Site Reliability Engineering) incorporated at the heart of the Cloud Operating Model that fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration, eliminating silos.
Conclusion
Microsoft Azure accelerates the Digital Transformation journey for enterprises. However, a partner with a skilled talent pool, the right set of tools, processes, and framework is critical for the swift execution and success of any Digital Transformation Project. Coforge, by leveraging its Azure certified professionals, frameworks, and tools, has been helping its customers on their journey to Cloud.
