Rick Skriletz is the Founder and CEO of InfoNovus Technologies, AI that computer-generates ready-to-use applications automatically from operational business designs.
Legacy IT is the biggest obstacle to digital transformation (Forbes), operational agility, and business responsiveness and adaptability. Legacy IT is ‘hand-crafted’ by people / technicians who perform a range of technical disciplines, each focused on technical components important to its discipline. This has led IT to buy or develop business applications that run on selected operating systems and data management platforms in order to minimize and optimize technical skill and resource requirements.
Supporting a diverse range of technologies requires more staff and equipment, which increases IT costs and complexity. Complexity developed as IT architectures expanded to include centralized mainframe, distributed client server, internet, mobile cloud, Internet of Things, and more. It is not uncommon for IT to support most if not all of these technology platforms. Complexity is multiplied further by the hundreds of applications running on these technologies that are in use and that IT must support.
IT complexity is the core obstacle to business agility. “Complexity is the sand that grinds all innovation to a halt” (CIO) and “IT complexity acts as a significant tax on IT value” (CIO). IT complexity must be eliminated for IT to be agile and adaptable to meet today’s business needs. Legacy IT cannot accomplish this. New technology is needed.
IT must focus on replacing legacy technologies. A legacy technology is one where an operating system, data management, or other platform technology locks in or binds an application to a technology and prevents it from using a new technology easily. IT must employ technology platforms that provide:
- Security – with the invasion of the digital world by bad actors, security of data, application (especially proprietary) functionality, and user access is the number one IT requirement;
- Simplicity – while business will always have its complexities, technology must simplify how IT supports business’s strategic, operational, and regulatory requirements;
- Speed – as the world becomes increasingly digital with real-time processing of IoT devices and other data streams, IT must automate work to operate in this realm;
- Suppleness – business agility and operational adaptability require applications that are flexible, malleable, and resilient.
IT needs three core platforms: (1) enterprise business management, including applications; (2) enterprise data management for all data and uses in all operating environments; and (3) operational technology management of the cloud, data, and application infrastructure that supports the business.
For enterprise business management, InfoNovus’s Instant IT is the platform for business processes, operational applications, and analytics. In previous posts, I discussed why Instant IT® is a game-changer for enterprise IT and for digital business transformations. For enterprise IT, Instant IT eliminates core IT problems, delivers custom business applications instantly, and reduces the total cost of ownership for business applications by 60%. For the business, Instant IT supports designs for customers’ unique and transformed business operations, how they need to work, and automating all aspects required to computer-generate a custom application for the transformed business instantly. Instant IT provides IT simplicity, speed, and operational suppleness.
For enterprise data management, technologies are now available that capture all types of data without pre-defined structures or organization, eliminate unnecessary data movement (bring work to the data, not data to the work), and physically support all levels of business data for analysis and advanced analytics. Instant IT computer-generates business applications that use data management technologies that eliminate data silos and avoid movement of data for use by business and analytic applications. Instant IT applications on these data management technologies provides IT simplicity, speed, operational suppleness, and security.
For operational technology management, technologies are now available that elevate and manage the technology infrastructure used to operate the business. While many of these are specific to a particular technical environment, some are attempting to be more comprehensive. The problem is the diverse range of legacy technologies and applications. Therefore, operational technology management needs to focus on technical infrastructure that will replace legacy IT. Kubernetes is an example of a technology focused on containers; it automates deployment, scaling and management of containerized applications. Instant IT will support IT operational technology management technologies focused on cloud, containers, APIs, and other aspects for the environments in which Instant IT computer-generated applications operate.
Instant IT is the backbone to digital business for its ability to transform any operational business process and make it more effective for your business. Instant IT automates use of the best-in-class technology platforms for enterprise IT and is a game-changer for any digital business. Check us out atwww.infonovus.com.
Future blogs will dive more deeply into IT, digital transformation, Instant IT, and more. Let us know if you would like to receive email notifications of future blog entries and more from InfoNovus.