No one likes being rushed into bad decisions.
Yet, the pace of information technology often forces IT executives to do that.
In today’s world, mainframe-to-cloud decisions need solid thinking or we risk a technology tornado. This article outlines some key lessons learned at the front-line of IT decision-making.
As previously discussed, it’s possible to “modernize” mainframe legacy applications to the cloud. You can get there with little to no modification by using a “lift-and-shift” strategy. Several of my clients have taken this approach to quickly satisfy a “cloud mandate”. The results have been less than desirable:
- Without the use of pooled resources, the applications do not scale well.
- Timely user provisioning and access from any device is still a challenge because the apps do not provide on-demand, ubiquitous access.
- In addition, utility-based pricing/costing is performed manually, with little accuracy to the realities of actual usage.
- Most importantly, the applications continue to have monolithic, stove-piped architectures, which are difficult and expensive to maintain and enhance.
These “cloud” applications are more like funnel cloud apps or tornoado apps—waiting to cause IT organizations extreme havoc. Assuming you want to avoid funnel clouds and IT tornadoes, consider applying the following five application architecture and design principles indicative of a true cloud application: Continue reading