Bi-modal IT: It’s already here

Red Hat Asia Pacific’s VP of Pre-Sales and Support, Sachin Shridar said, “Most forward-thinking CIOs understand where they need to go, but every day they have to balance the need to keep the train on track (IT operations-wise) versus the need to innovate.”

In recent time however, the innovation agenda has been slowly creeping up organisations’ priority lists as companies of all sizes and from across all different kinds of sectors become technologically disrupted; technology is enabling new ways of making and marketing things, and this is giving companies huge advantage over others who haven’t been able to innovate with tech.

With technologies like cloud, mobility, big data and analytics and collaboration becoming more prevalent, it has become a matter of survival to successfully adopt and adapt these technologies, quicker than the next competitor.

But how does an organisation implement new technologies when there is still so much existing IT in the landscape? How do they make both of these, work together in an organisation’s environment?

Bi-modal

Sachin observed, “Most customers whether they realise it or not, are in a bi-modal mode today. On the one hand for overall IT, legacy systems have to be up and running and on the other hand, all of them if they are not already thinking of, or working on or having systems of engagement, they would be stretched for revenue.”

Systems of record or underlying legacy IT tend to be built in a way that does not require it to be agile, while systems of engagement which are customer-facing like mobile apps, have to keep up with the competition, Sachin said, also adding that bi-modal IT and digital transformation go hand in hand.

“All of them are already in that (bi-modal) style of thinking. And systems of engagement have to keep up with the competition.”

This is especially true for already established organisations that have sprawling legacy install base.

Conservative vs risky approaches

How businesses build their infrastructure is going to tell in the next decade or so. And this infrastructure is foundational to not just how successful digital transformation projects will be, but also how far reaching and for how long the benefits will be.

Sachin said that the main challenge to digital transformation right now is the customer mindset. “They have to broaden their thinking and embrace the multiple choices they have out there now.”