INTELLIGENT DATA CENTRES
Digital transformation
driving adoption of
cloud, IT optimisation
The State of Application Delivery report 2018 from
F5 Networks captures the full impact of digital
transformation on the IT organisation and cloud adoption
explains Cindy Borovick.
Cindy Borovick, Business Intelligence Director,
F5 Networks.
W
ith digital transformation
reshaping the modern
enterprise, applications
represent a new class of assets and an
important source of differentiation. The
digital economy requires that applications
be delivered with speed, scale, and agility,
which is why more and more organisations
are turning to the cloud.
This explosive growth of apps hosted in
the cloud creates a world of opportunities
and a whole new set of challenges for
organisations that must now deploy and
manage a vast portfolio of applications in
multi-cloud environments. Automation
and orchestration systems can help
streamline and standardise IT processes
across traditional datacentres, private
clouds and public clouds. But with rapid
innovation come concerns about security
and delivering a consistent experience
across environments.
Enter application services, which can
help organisations boost performance,
maintain availability, improve network
and application security, and gain visibility
into the behavior and health of their
apps wherever they are deployed. In this
dynamic technology ecosystem, the only
law is change. As a result, the types of
application services, the way they are
deployed, and the environments they serve
are constantly evolving.
36
Last year, the survey noticed the
influence of the digital economy on
application services. This year, the
proof is clear. Organisations are
building the foundation to support
digital transformation by embracing
cloud, automation and orchestration.
Furthermore, businesses are adjusting
their security strategies to focus more
on the application and are considering
new offerings that are better suited to
support applications deployed across
multiple clouds.
Organisations leverage a suite of
application services to provide the
security, availability, and performance
that their critical applications require
to satisfy the needs of businesses and
customers alike.
With the percentage of apps being
delivered from the cloud growing,
maintaining a robust and consistent
suite of application services will become
more and more important. This year,
respondents were heavily focused
on internal requirements to support
the digital economy. As they become
confident in the foundation they are
building, IT organisations will reinvent
themselves as platforms for competitive
differentiation and innovation, helping
drive business success in this continuing
digital transformation.
Key takeaways
Organisations of all sizes are adapting to
the new digital economy through digital
transformation projects. Optimising IT
infrastructure and processes, gaining a
competitive advantage, and improving
employee productivity are all driving these
major shifts. As organisations evolve, they
look to the cloud to provide the flexibility
necessary to succeed in an increasingly
crowded marketplace.
As applications drive business,
organisations make IT decisions based
on the needs of the app, leading many to
leverage multiple cloud platforms. While
multi-cloud environments offer many
benefits in terms of speed, scale, and
flexibility, challenges include providing
consistent security across clouds, protecting
apps from a variety of threats, and gaining
visibility into application health.
Security held the top position in
the list of services that organisations
consider mandatory to deploy in support
of their apps. However, four of the top
five app services that organisations plan
to deploy in the next twelve months
are gateway services, which help bridge
gaps between existing and emerging
technology. Finally, organisations
undergoing digital transformation were
nearly twice as likely to prefer deploying
app services in containers.
Issue 15
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS