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While most enterprises are committed to modernizing their application software portfolios, there are still myriad challenges to overcome and improvements to be made, according to a survey conducted by Hanover Research.
Cloud based approach- According to the report, application development functions have a full agenda for the next 12 months, with the majority seeking improvements in speed, quality and security to ensure continued competitiveness.
- Speed: Only 37% of respondents are very satisfied with how fast they are currently delivering new software or new features. As such, 82% of survey respondents selected wanting to meet the needs of the business faster as a top priority. To speed up application releases, 54% of respondents are investing in automation.
- Quality: Delivering better quality software, faster is a top priority for 79% of respondents as only 40% of respondents are fully satisfied with current software quality.
- Security: Less than half (42%) are fully satisfied with the security of their application software, and as such, 48% identified DevSecOps – the integration of security early and often in software development – as an active initiative.
Application software challenges
The road to modern applications can be arduous as complex legacy infrastructure, inefficient manual processes and organizational silos persist as barriers to progress.
- Complex infrastructure: Inflexible and complex legacy environments (35%) were cited as the top barrier to modern apps for respondents. A quarter of respondents (25%) identified too much custom software and 23% listed infrastructure that can’t keep up with the demand for new features, as additional challenges.
- Inefficient processes: When asked which software challenges does your company face, 31% of survey respondents said current IT processes take too much time, followed by test and release processes taking too long (29%). Additionally, the survey found that there is a higher focus on migrating applications to the cloud (59%) than on efforts such as rolling out continuous integration and deployment (43%) and containers and container orchestration (33%).
- Silos: Nearly half (43%) of companies report that their infrastructure can’t keep up with app development needs, in part because of silos between applications and infrastructure teams. Related, 72% of responding organizations listed running IT with more controls and visibility as a top priority.
Drivers of success
There are four pillars to a successful modern applications strategy: cloud native applications (built with microservices), cloud native platforms, continuous integration / continuous delivery pipelines and adoption of DevOps culture and practices.
