Top 5 Best Practices to Modernize Legacy Applications

Top 5 Best Practices to Modernize Legacy Applications

Legacy applications are the backbone of a significant portion of many modern organizations; the downside of such software is that they can require a lot of maintenance and financial investments to keep them in running condition. Considering requirements, it is challenging to keep these applications up and running, without incurring substantial costs and investing a lot of wasted time into the maintenance process. Despite cost and time investments, these legacy applications can’t be shown the door.

Legacy applications are used to gauge the performance of business operations. What if an organization wants to progress by staying in sync with technology, and continue making use of these technological tools to aid this advancement? In other words, in the era of the Cloud, legacy applications can come across as a little outdated, and their performance can remain restricted. However, the idea is to modernize these legacy applications, and speed up their processing prowess, to reduce costs and maximize productivity.

Legacy Applications — The List of Problems Continue

With all said and done, it is safe to say that organizations and DevOps teams have successfully trudged forward on the path of application modernization; however, these projects are occasionally time-bound and are unable to meet the targeted timelines, which creates vendor lock-in. Organizations have to choose between a single Cloud platform and container vendors, which increases the overall maintenance price over a period.

Applications such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, etc., have been built in the form of unbreakable monoliths — this means that the data associated with these applications provides excellent data security and networking options to the resident organizations. When it comes to upgrading the features of these applications in a specific manner, organizations might end up with a roadblock most of the time — even small updates will mean undertaking a long, slow testing process.

To break down the traditional stereotypes of these legacy applications, and replace them with newer more efficient application versions, it’s essential to follow these five best procedures and then decide the best approach to move forward:

Breaking the Monolith to Garner Efficiency

Break down the legacy application, from the networking needs to the overall structure to the storage configurations, and how it will look on a virtual platform. Breaking down software into separate individual components will make it easier to recreate the new model within containers; however, this approach is more feasible when it is implemented at a significant scale.

Separate Applications From Infrastructure

If the legacy applications have an underlying dependency on the organization’s infrastructure, the chances are that you would need to separate everything piece by piece, before moving onto a new platform. Check out the feasibility of the code, and the platforms it can run on. During separation, the idea is to avoid making any drastic changes, so that everything can be picked and moved when the time comes. By gaining an advantage over the traditional monoliths, you would be able to make use of storage containers, cloud environments, and different storage options to move to a platform which offers security, price, and performance, all rolled into one bundle.

The Costs of Decommissioning

When you start pulling apart legacy applications into different components, it is essential to catalog every piece, along with the cost to replicate such. Some features might be easy to implement, while others might come across as light on the pocket. At the same time, other components will be difficult to achieve and might require a lot of investment to move from one platform to another. By having a clear-cut idea on the cost, and the immediate needs, developers and operations teams can pick and choose the components needed and the combinations which need to be replicated.

Security Building is a Necessity

If you are pushing security implementation post-deployment, then you need to take a step back and start reevaluating the options. Security needs to be fused within every stage of application rebuilding, and it should be given utmost priority during the pick and drop phase. As each component is reimaged and reinvented, security can be layered between each element, and the process will become foolproof.

DevOps is the Key to Strong Results

DevOps means working together; in this case, it’s all about the operations team and the developers’ team working hand in hand to arrive at a proper, well-augmented solution. When these teams work in tandem with each other, the chances are that there will be a faster turnaround of new platforms, as more and more component combinations will be decoded and shifted from one platform to another.

In other words, the DevOps teams will be in a better position to understand what is needed, and what is not; they can also jointly decide the combinations required to bring to the new platform, thereby eradicating the need of adding on useless components, which are of no value going forth.

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AWS re:Invent 2018

AWS re:Invent 2018

Event Details: At re:Invent 2018, you can expect deeper technical content, more hands-on learning opportunities, and more access to AWS experts than ever. The return of our two-hour workshops and our hackathon program means that you can dive into solving challenges and working on a team. The chalk talks and builders sessions give you the opportunity to interact in a small group setting with AWS experts as they whiteboard through problems and solutions. We have many more opportunities this year for you to interact, build, and learn, so you can get the most out of re:Invent.

Each year at re:Invent, we bring you over a thousand sessions, chalk talks, workshops, builders sessions, and hackathons that cover AWS core topics and embrace the emerging technologies we are developing. re:Invent 2018 will be no different. You will find sessions that cover topics that you have seen in past years: databases, analytics & big data, security & compliance, enterprise, machine learning, and compute, to name a few. This year, you will be able to cross-search these topics in the session catalog, so you can really drill down and find the sessions most pertinent to you.

[Know more about the Conference]

About Idexcel: Idexcel is a Professional Services and Technology Solutions provider specializing in Cloud Services, Application Modernization, and Data Analytics. Idexcel is proud that for more than 20 years it has provided services that implement complex technologies that are innovative, agile and successful and have provided our customers with lasting value.

Anand Allolankandy – (Sr. Director Technical Sales & Delivery at Idexcel) will be attending this event. For further queries, please write to anand@idexcel.com

How Big Data is Changing the Healthcare Sector

How Big Data is Changing the Healthcare Sector

The healthcare sector is progressing rapidly, expanding both its reach and challenges. With an increased patient-doctor ratio, organizations must find a way to tackle the chaotic situation—a better management tool to handle the workload efficiently. Primitive book-keeping provides no scope for rapid scanning and locating a particular patient’s record; this results in delayed attention to the patient and decreases in severity. With broad adoption of the latest technology in the medical field, it is time that organizations enhance the overall healthcare system.

Therefore, healthcare firms should embrace newer technologies that help facilitate better and faster resolutions to patient’s problems, while extending a scientifically-advanced atmosphere — using Big Data and Analytics helps organizations achieve these goals. These are the significant ways in which Big Data can help the healthcare sector flourish:

Patient Health Tracking

It so happens that doctors generally want to analyze the patient’s health history before exploring anything new. But, due to disorganized data-keeping, the patients themselves are not ready to furnish the health-related documents accumulated over the years. Big Data easily tracks the entire history of the patient’s health including all minor/ significant operations undergone; it has revolutionized the whole paradigm by introducing statistical analysis that predicts and warns about the future possible occurrences.

Internet of Things aided by Big Data is a further leap in this revolution. From tracking heartbeats and sugar levels to breathing patterns and distance walked, smart wearables help provide more transparent data that can serve as a basis for medical assistance. Creating a unified database containing the citizen’s health history would enable health systems to fetch data in seconds, saving crucial time and human resources.

Increased Efficiency

With patient’s data a few clicks away, healthcare firms can obtain the entire history of the patients in seconds, making it easy for both patients and doctors — apart from saving time, this leads to reduced cost. The hands needed to keep the manual records, the data carrier, the data traveler and the data analyst, would all be required to put in their working hours. However, Big Data eliminates the mediating costs as well as the consumed time, resulting in a more efficient healthcare environment.

Making Predictions

Digitized data and statistical representation not only helps analyze the current situation but also assists in making predictions; this gives the healthcare sector an edge over the potentiality of certain diseases. The pattern of the disease will help the doctors make plans for the patient in advance—certainly rewarding in situations where the time is everything for the patient. Doctors can operate with better insights concerning the health state of a patient in a customized healthcare strategy.

Reducing Errors

It is known that human error is bound to take place, no matter how much care is placed while working with data. The calculations, the sorting, and the interpretive analysis all require precise attention. With increased workloads (or even otherwise) workers may commit errors. Big Data reduces this error-rate by employing scientific and mathematically correct equations—equally robust every time they are applied. Big data can also be used to sort unrelated prescriptions added faultily in a patient’s record. So, Big data can take care of not just avoiding errors but can also of rectifying them.

Progressive Approach

Adoption of Big data in the healthcare sector is not only a problem-solving tool but rather a way of growing operation. What use will expensive equipment and the latest medicines have if they don’t have a compatible platform to perform? A progressive environment consists of forces that work in cohesion, leading to an optimum output, all within the shadow of efficient operating. An environment which is readily embracing other advancements will show no progress if all improvements are not adequately attended. Big Data not only eases the healthcare procedures but also helps in the advancement of the infrastructure as a whole.

Predicting the possible disease level, analyzing and representing data statistically, reducing the doctor-patient gap, and cutting down costs and time are all sign of progressive development. Without the help of Big Data, the healthcare sector would possibly never achieve this goal.

Challenges are there in implementing Big Data fully in the healthcare sector, but there won’t be achievements without starting the process. To fully utilize the wealth of scientific intelligence, using Big Data seems unavoidable. If implementing it introduces so many positives to the sector and then why not apply it?

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How Cloud-Native Architectures will Reshape Enterprise Workloads

How Cloud-Native Architectures will Reshape Enterprise Workloads

The term Cloud-native is not very old; if you look back a decade, you would realize that the Cloud was a glorified myth, which was foreseen as the prophet of the technology world. Since the Cloud was an unknown concept back then, the idea of a cloud-focused technology stack was far from being an actual reality.

Despite being out and about, the Cloud’s progress has been slow and is taking time to go into a fully developed zone. Even though Cloud Native was not in the picture till a few years back, it has made CIOs take notice of it now, to the extent that cloud-native workloads are expected to rise to 32% by the end of this decade.

By leveraging cloud-native structures, companies and large enterprises can shape their futures, by taking into consideration their customers’ ever-increasing demands and mapping it with the technology of tomorrow. With so much discussion around the word Cloud-native, we finally arrive at the juncture where it is imperative to understand what it means to be Cloud Native. Let’s take a spin around this keyword and understand its true meaning in a business environment.

The Power of Transforming the Future

Cloud-native, as a term, refers to the procedure by which apps are architected and redefined to reap the advantages of the cloud computing delivery model. Alternatively, it means taking advantage of elasticity, resiliency, and scalability, to gain maximum benefits of the continuous delivery model. Despite being around for a couple of years, this concept has caught the attention of developers in the past few years only.

As an enterprise, if you are looking to develop, test, and deploy software, but don’t have the time to wait, then being cloud-native is the approach to adopt. With this method, you can reduce deployment time from days to mere hours. As a business, the idea is to provide seamless, uninterrupted services to your customers’, without affecting the user’s experience. Through cloud-native apps, this is no longer wishful thinking; it is a reality, which is worth monitoring and adopting.

Cloud-native can be described as the DNA of the cloud computing delivery model. The Cloud has been known to enable agility, cut costs, and offer limitless resources (almost). While the Cloud is limited to being a concept, being cloud-native describes how to follow the model and not just limit it to a place where apps are to be stored and built.

Advantages of Cloud-Native Environment

Taking advantage of the cloud computing model might sound easy, but it is essential first to consider all possible avenues to maximize the returns from the environment.

Velocity and Ultimate Control:
Businesses wants to reduce the turnaround times of apps to enhance customer services and experiences. The idea is to reduce the time taken to develop, test, and deploy code, from quarterly to daily cycles. To get a developer’s production cycle to skyrocket it’s crucial to move apps into a cloud-native environment. Through this methodology, developers can take better control of their code production code and roll out final versions without untimely delays.

Operation Excellence:
Cloud-native environment facilitates the use of operational practices and aides in making system management a cinch; it helps create specialized executive functions. Operational efficiency is all about breaking silos and working together to achieve common organizational goals. When the purposes of the operations and the development teams are aligned, everything falls into place like a jigsaw puzzle, and goals seem like a common objective waiting to be achieved and conquered.

Cloud-native has become a word to reckon; apart from being one of the most recognized terms in the software industry these days, it has also become a mantra for success. Cloud-native apps are becoming the next best thing in the technological gamut, and are slowly, but steadily paving the way for a more robust, and efficient software development platform. There is no doubt that the Cloud is here to stay; nothing can, and nothing will sway it from its current position as being one of the most preferred choices of operation.

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Top 6 Methods to Protect Your Cloud Data from Hackers

Top 6 Methods to Protect Your Cloud Data from Hackers

Cloud computing is a widely preferred platform across organizations. The fluid data exchange and the liberty of 24×7 access to data allows firms to operate continuously. Although the cloud service is exceptionally convenient, one should be equally aware that data might be compromised if companies don’t take appropriate measures. The vast collection of raw and processed data in the cloud attracts potential hackers to lurk around, leading to possible information breaches. One needs to know the complete whereabouts of their data, even if handed over to an expert. Here are a few tips your business can use to ensure the security of data in your cloud.

Ensure Local Backup

It is the essential precaution that one can take towards cloud data security. Misuse of data is one thing, but losing possible data from your end may result in dire consequences. Especially in the IT world, where information is everything organizations depend upon; losing data files could not only lead to a significant financial loss but may also attract legal action.

Avoid Storing Sensitive Information

Many companies refrain from storing personal data on their servers, and there is sensibility behind the decision — saving sensitive becomes a responsibility of the organization. Compromise with such data can lead to gruesome troubles for the firm. Giants such as Facebook have been dragged to court under such issues in the past. Additionally, uploading sensitive data is faulty from the customer’s perspective too. Merely avoid storing such sensitive data on the cloud.

Use Encryption

Encrypting data before uploading it to the cloud is an excellent precaution against threats from unwanted hackers. Use local encryption as an additional layer of security. Known as zero-knowledge proof in cryptography, this method will even protect your data against service providers and administrators themselves. Therefore, choose a service provider who provides a prerequisite data encryption. Also if you’re already opting for an encrypted cloud service, having a preliminary round of encryption for your files will give you a little extra security.

Apply Reliable Passwords

Utilize discretion and don’t make your passwords predictable. Additionally, introduce a two-step verification process to enhance the security level of your data. Even if there is a breach in one security step, the other protects the data. Use updated patch levels so that hackers cannot break-in easily. There are numerous tips on the Internet to make a good password. Use your creativity to strengthen the password further and keep changing it at regular intervals.

Additional Security Measures

Although passwords are good for keeping data encrypted, applying additional measures are also important. Encryption stops unauthorized access of data, but it doesn’t secure its existence. There are chances that your data might get corrupted over the time or that many people will have access to your data and password security seems unreliable. Your cloud must be secured with antivirus programs, admin controls, and other features that help protect data. A secure cloud system and its dedicated servers must use the right security tools and must function according to privilege controls to move data.

Test Your Security

Testing might sound like a minor task, but it can make a significant difference. Testing may include examining your cloud to see how well it is performing in association with its security setup. You can also hire ethical hackers to test your system’s security level and check if it has decayed over time; this may also provide a window to the possible loopholes that may allow hacking from unknown sources. Never assume that your cloud system is always safe. Keeping cloud data safe requires constant action.

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How DevOps Will Help You Get More Business

How DevOps Will Help You Get More Business

Out of the various methodologies available in the market, businesses are relying more heavily on DevOps to provide products faster and reduce release cycles. Through the development of DevOps, companies are automating their delivery pipelines and steadily integrating new techniques within the deployment cycles at a steady pace.

There was a time when the development and operations teams used to work separately. With the launch of the DevOps concept, traditional silos have been broken down, and rapid efficiency has been instilled in organizational structures.

DevOps Is All about Business Transformation

The agile culture has rapidly stepped in, bringing with it business growth and transformation. Organizations which have utilized the DevOps concept are said to have seen 60% higher revenues along with increased profitability. Most of the times, enterprises which are forward thinking and open to innovation and participative, will benefit the most out of the principles of DevOps. On the contrary, enterprises which are simply stuck in a rut, and are not ready to get out of their monolithic silos will continue to employ the traditional methodologies, and in turn, lose out with their competition.

Challenges in the Making

In an ideal world, organizations which fully embrace the values of DevOps can garner a lot of respect in the market. Despite this supposition, only one-third organizations can get repeat the benefits, many of them being self-made.

Other obstacles which prevent organizations from getting into the DevOps groove can be earmarked as budget constraints, security-related issues, and lack of necessary skills and knowledge. To get over these minor challenges, one needs to measure the benefits to the business, and accordingly carve out a strategy to enhance the utilization of the techniques to achieve final goals.

Ways DevOps Drive Business Growth

Organizations are out to make profits, lower costs, and enhance their customer experiences. But all this can be driven, only when the enterprises are ready to take the necessary initiatives to employ agile practices within their processes and create a sense of unity, by overcoming the self-created challenges. A proper strategy is needed to drive business growth, which will be fueled by the efforts of the employees, working in tandem towards achieving business goals.

Speed up Your Product Deployment

Beating the competition is of paramount importance for an organization. By possessing the ability to develop and deploy at a fast pace, an organization can ensure success in the product development cycle. However, this can be achieved by making use of the DevOps procedures. Since DevOps provides continuous development and delivery, it becomes an essential tool for driving business growth. More products in the market will mean higher revenue for an organization.

Better communication channels through collaboration between teams start by doing away with the silo structures within an organization and furthering communication in order to speed up the product lifecycle. Through enhanced communication and operations, development teams can work seamlessly with each other to ensure the right product development takes places.

Performance-oriented Culture Is All It Takes

Changing a company’s culture and making it more performance oriented is a big deal, which can only be achieved by the deployment of DevOps culture within the organization. By driving such a culture, management can eradicate inefficiencies caused by traditional work methodologies, and further encourage information sharing and mitigation of risks across functions.

DevOps is all about driving product development and deployment while ensuring that it is well within the confines of the company’s limits. The idea is to drive efficiency and enhance production patterns to ensure that everything is developed and deployed, as developers and operations work together to form a successful union.

Since working together is the mantra for success, a business needs to know how to tap in the right resources while ushering in the required changes so that there is harmony between the different processes and teams.

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How Big Data is Changing the Business World and Why it Matters

How Big Data is Changing the Business World and Why it Matters

The future is here, and Big Data is ushering new advents within the technology world at a steady pace. Over the last two years, Big Data has changed the very outlook of companies and the way they store data; it allows precise manipulations on large volumes of data, and it’s been revealed that every day 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced; this number will only increase in the future.

Every company, irrespective of their size, generates data; this might be customer information, employee data, or even sales data. No matter what type of data you have, it plays an important role when it comes to improving your quality of services. Here are a few ways in which Big Data is changing the face of businesses these days:

Enhanced Business Intelligence: A set of tools, business intelligence (BI), designed to help analyze the company. BI and Big Data go hand in hand; they have come to complement each other when it comes to handling business-related operations. As data insights drive a majority of the companies and businesses, there is a lot to look forward to regarding Business Intelligence. The higher the scope of BI, the better the business insight.

Better Targeted Marketing: When one talks about Big Data, the idea is to look at the benefits which can be achieved through data manipulation. Through the use of Big Data, targeted marketing has become a thing of the present and the future. Target marketing has helped businesses achieve their long-term goals, with efficiency and excellent results. Through high accuracy, companies can meet the demands of their perceived customers and develop their marketing strategies more effectively. It’s almost like preempting the needs of your customers and basing your products on these needs. The level of marketing and customer satisfaction goes up a notch, thereby leading to better sales and higher revenue.

Happy Customers, Satisfied Customers: Companies and businesses serve customers at all times; a happy customer is a loyal, satisfied customer. But how does one ensure their customers are happy at all times? Simply put, a business has to do all it takes to satisfy their customers’ needs and work towards fulfilling them. To pursue your customer’s needs, there are only two ways to move forward: either wait for your customer to come forward and express his/her needs or preempt the needs beforehand and work on them to enhance customer service. Big data helps in the latter; if a business can understand their customer’s needs, it can immensely benefit from a better customer service and a satisfied customer base.

Driving Efficiencies within Internal Processes: Data is the backbone of every business; it is essential to create efficiencies within their internal processes. By driving efficiencies, a company can garner momentum within their operations and get a lot of success in their day to day endeavors. The idea is to be able to maximize profits while keeping customer needs in mind. Through the use of Big Data, processes can be made more efficient without compromising on the customer service needs. The idea is to create a subtle balance between the business and customer needs to be able to drive the business forward in the right direction.

Cost Reduction: Big Data is well equipped to provide the required information for businesses to help reduce costs. Through the use of this predictive science, previous trends monitoring and event predictions, companies can predict events and strategize according to the given resources and needs. Cost reduction is a long-term goal, and can’t be achieved in a day, or a week; it has to be planned over a period, keeping in mind past trending factors, future occurrences, and how customers would behave to a particular enhancement. The idea is to ensure proper cost standards are established, so that cost reduction is no longer a fable, but a well-established practice.

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Why Should Enterprises Move into DevOps?

Why Should Enterprises Move into DevOps?

DevOps has become the talk of the town these days and enterprises are rapidly adopting its practices within their day to day functions, to enhance operational efficiency. Businesses can gain a variety of benefits; these the benefits are not dependent on the business size or the nature of the company.

Now the question is why should enterprises move into DevOps and what can they gain with this movement? For large scale enterprises, moving to DevOps might seem like a daunting experience, given the series of unknown elements at play within the field. However, if one were to look at the bigger picture, the benefits would emerge to be more than the risks involved.

Customers want convenience in their day to day operations. For this very reason, there is a lot of pressure on enterprises to perform well, while automating their day to day operations. Without the involvement of DevOps and the automation facilities it brings along with, it becomes difficult for businesses to meet customer demands in an ideal scenario.

Resons For Enterprises to Move to DevOps

Continuous Delivery and Quicker Updates: Software updates in the traditional manner can take many hours, which might even span over a few days. However, with the launch of DevOps, the turnaround time for updating applications has become shorter. Faster delivery means that customer-facing applications will not lose their functionality and that any downtime will be shorter.

With the implementation of DevOps, enterprises can implement a more streamlined updating process, which is achieved by bridging the gaps between development, quality assurance, and IT. Using this method, operational performances and customer experience is enhanced.

Enhanced Workflow: Traditional methodologies come with their own set of inefficiencies, which can hamper production. Through automation, manual and repetitive tasks can be automated, so that human errors can be minimized; this would eventually mean that developers don’t have to double check input errors. For example, security risk checks can be automated, which can deftly point out any mistakes within the systems. Through DevOps, these security checks can be run continuously, to avoid having any risks.

Improved Innovation: DevOps is all about driving innovation through the use of agile methodology. Through the use of DevOps, enterprises can get rid of organizational work silos, and further be able to scale systems to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers and developers. As DevOps improves communications between work teams and eliminates silos within the organization, it becomes easier to work towards the company’s unified goals.

Automation and innovation come along with the implementation of the agile methodology, which helps enhance day to day procedures and removes inefficient processes.

Competitive Edge: New methods and the use of agile methodology can push companies forward, helping them to zoom past their competitors. There are numerous automation possibilities with the implementation of DevOps, which means that companies gain an edge over other companies who are still using the traditional methods of production in their day to day operations.

With the option to continuously update applications and gain constant feedback, there is a vast scope for instant delivery and improvement. As feedback channels open up, feedback can be implemented immediately, and enhancements become more active within the system; this undoubtedly leads to better production.

Early Defect Detection: Once the developer checks the code, a unit test is often run to gauge the defects. If a problem is found in the system, it can be reported and fixed immediately. This way, any probability of errors occurring in the later stages can be eliminated, which means there would not be any sudden surprises towards the end of the production line. Defects can be easily managed, and everything is taken care of initially with the help of DevOps.

Overhead Reduction: Less defect accumulation can often help enterprises save a lot of money by catching issues early. If a developer waits until the last minute to detect any possible problems, the chances are that a lot of money will be wasted attempting to identify the source of the problem.

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