Application Development and Modernization Strategies to Avoid Cloud Adoption Pitfalls

Cloud computing is a cornerstone of any modern application development strategy – and for good reason. 

Cloud-based architecture offers organizations numerous benefits, including connectivity, speed, cost savings, security and a reduced risk of data loss – not to mention the means to innovate in ways that attract customers and scale in ways that enable you to serve them as you grow. The cloud has also leveled the playing field for small and medium enterprises, giving them access to cutting-edge IT infrastructure at an affordable cost.  

For these reasons and more, terms like “stored in the cloud” and “access from anywhere” and “running in the cloud” are now part of our day-to-day vocabulary. Over 90% of enterprises use cloud services and more than two-thirds of enterprise infrastructure is cloud-based – illustrative of the cloud’s essential role in the modern business landscape.  

But this importance cuts both ways. Doing a poor job of adopting cloud architecture can put your entire application development strategy at risk. In what follows, we’ll dig deeper into why a cloud-based app modernization strategy is crucial and how to avoid common pitfalls while migrating to the cloud.  

But first, let’s discuss some of the benefits that a modern app development strategy has over legacy technology and strategies. 

Modern Application Development: The Key to Solving Legacy System Shortcomings 

The rigid, linear structure of tightly coupled legacy systems can severely limit your team’s ability to effectively scale, manage and update applications over time. Traditional architecture requires developers to redeploy the entire application to carry out even basic updates and to use the same tech stack across the entire app for any further development.  

A modern, cloud-based application development strategy addresses these issues – solving the problems inherent in legacy systems, including fragmented developer experiences and limited observability. 

In a cloud-hosted, microservice-based app development strategy, each microservice is loosely coupled, allowing the development teams to easily test each component and make changes to them over time. This streamlines the scaling efforts and the greatly reduces resource requirements. 

These improvements enhance both developer and operator experiences. And by implementing a unified cloud management system, such as Kubernetes, organizations can also gain a comprehensive view and improve their observability and metric measurement capabilities. 

Cloud Migration Pitfalls to Avoid 

Migrating to the cloud addresses a lot of big challenges, but for many businesses, the process is not always smooth or successful. The reasons for this fit a handful of categories. 

• Misalignment of business and IT – Cloud programs are often led by IT, but their value is realized through business operations. To ensure alignment and maximize the value of the cloud, operations must integrate the cloud into their regular business processes. CIOs are rarely equipped to drive these organizational changes themselves, making it difficult for business executives to own responsibility for these cloud programs or see them fully realized.  

• Underestimating technology complexity – Management often significantly underestimates the complexities involved in successfully executing cloud modernization. The cloud removes the burden of managing in-house data centers, freeing space for innovation and supporting highly distributed systems and microservice-driven architecture. This is essential for developing next-generation intelligent applications – but some businesses fail to realize the need to manage hybrid cloud environments. This adds significant complexity to platform and infrastructure operations. Organizations with multiple applications, each needing to be migrated to the cloud, face additional time and cost challenges. 

• Overestimating organizational alignment – CIOs generally agree on the need to adapt operating models for hybrid cloud environments. However, their approach often focuses on reorganizing teams rather than addressing silos, identifying inefficiencies or fundamentally changing workflows. Only with high levels of cloud automation can technology teams keep up with expectations – and only a few companies invest in the automation required to transform IT delivery and fully leverage modern technologies. 

A Holistic Approach to Modern Application Development  

Material has partnered with many of organizations to modernize their application development strategies and help them migrate seamlessly to the cloud. What we’ve learned can be summed up in the following points.  

• Platform Strategy – When adopting modern app development practices, prioritize investment in a self-service platform for product teams. This lets them maintain standardized processes, workflows and tools from a central location, and enables them to move apps to the desired cloud environment consistently and quickly. This also establishes a common ground for developers and operators and improves their experiences. This standardization also reduces hassle for developers and shortens time to market with continuous integration. 

• Application Modernization Strategy – When modernizing legacy applications or migrating existing apps to the cloud, it is important to use a well-defined cloud platform. It’s also imperative to identify a cloud strategy based on business objectives and the current state of applications – and to ensure all stakeholders have the necessary access and visibility. For multi-cloud adoptions, establish a single pane of glass view – an enterprise-wide visibility and single source of truth – to ensure alignment. Deploying an application development platform like VMware Tanzu can greatly simplify management and enhance observability across your organization. 

• Management & Optimization – Moving to the cloud or adopting cloud-native practices is just the first step of a successful application modernization strategy. What matters next is measuring metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that indicate how well day-to-day operations, incidents and application performance are managed. We recommend a site reliability engineering (SRE) approach, which focuses on transparency, constant feedback loops, predictive maintenance and continuous improvement. These principles ensure application reliability, minimize incident management overheads and deliver a consistent customer experience.

Every organization is different, and your strategy needs to fit your unique needs. The above pitfalls and tips are designed to get you thinking about how a modern, cloud-based approach to app development could support your business and elevate your customers’ experiences. If you are interested in learning more, Material can help. 

From discovery, where we’ll unpack what’s possible for your organization, to post-implementation support, Material is here to ensure our clients get the most from their cloud and app development strategies. To explore what we can do for you, reach out today for an expert consultation.