Commit to modernization
Modernization requires commitment. It takes time and money to modernize. Creating a modernization roadmap can accelerate approval from the right stakeholders. These stakeholders are typically business leads and technical leads. You'll need to identify the stakeholders, define their involvement, and get the commitment you need.
- Technical Leads - Technical leads need to own the modernization roadmap and present it to the business leads for investment.
- Business leads - Business leads should review the modernization roadmap, understand the ROI, and approve the modernization.
For more information, see:
Here are steps you can follow to prepare for and gain modernization commitment.
Identify modernization strategies
You need to figure out what modernization strategies help you meet your modernization goals. We covered five modernization motivations in the envision step. These motivations will determine what modernization strategies you'll commit to.
We've provided a table that aligns motivations with two or more modernization strategies.
| Modernization motivation (What's your goal?) |
Modernization strategy (How to reach your goal) |
|---|---|
| Enabling hybrid work |
|
| Faster time-to-market |
|
| Cost optimization |
|
| Application innovation |
|
| Centralizing data |
|
Notice that process modernization is listed with every modernization motivation. Modernizing your process is essential to working in the cloud. It's the fastest way to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). No matter your motivation for modernization, it's critical to modernize your process.
Add modernization strategies
With the modernization strategies identified, it's time to update the modernization update. your workload table with modernization strategies by adding the modernization strategies you identified in step 1 with the table you created in the envision step of business alignment (see the following example).
| Business function | Workload | Motivation | Modernization Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-commerce website |
Web app Business logic Database Servers Payment System |
Application innovation |
|
| Factory production | Machine/Robot IOT device Programmable Logic Controller Monitoring Server |
Centralizing data |
|
Create a modernization timeline for each workload
Create a modernization timeline for each workload. The amount of time it takes to modernize your workloads depends on your team's experience and the complexity of your situation (see table).
| Business Function | Workload | Motivation | Modernization Strategy | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-commerce Website |
Web App Business logic Database Servers Payment System |
Application innovation |
|
N-weeks |
| Factory Production | Machine/Robot IOT device Programmable Logic Controller Monitoring Server |
Centralizing data |
|
N-weeks |
You might have the technical expertise to estimate the modernization effort. If not, see the following resources to get the expert advice you need.
Commit resources to the modernization
Business leads provide the budget for the modernization effort. The budget should allow the technical leads to put the right people on the project and give the technical team the right tools.
Next steps
By completing the previous steps, you've created a high-level modernization roadmap. This roadmap identifies and assigns resources to the following business aspects:
- What you want to modernize (workload)
- Why you want to modernize (modernization motivation)
- How you can modernize (modernization strategies)
- When you'll modernize (timeline)
With your modernization roadmap and commitments in place, you can begin modernizing.
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