This is the second in a series of posts that delves deeper into the questions that IDC’s Mary Johnston Turner and Gary Chen considered in a recent IDC Analyst Connection. The second question asked:

What are the typical challenges that organizations need to address as part of this evolution [to IT that at least includes a strong cloud-native component]?

In their response, Mary and Gary note the challenges associated with “having to integrate with conventional systems can slow down the entire process and work against the agile, continuous integration/continuous delivery methodologies these DevOps teams often employ.” At the same time, this integration can’t be dispensed with; they add that “IDC expects cloud-native and conventional applications to become more connected and interdependent over time.” (Check out the recent webinar discussing this and other topics: Next-generation IT strategies: Mixing conventional and cloud-native infrastructure–based on a recent IDC survey.)

So, where does that leave us? Is traditional IT destined to just be a boat anchor when it’s integrated with cloud-native IT? (And make no mistake, integration is an inevitability.)

Variations of this question also come up as part of critiques to the bimodal or two-speed IT idea.

This is the first in a series of posts that delves deeper into the questions that IDC’s Mary Johnston Turner and Gary Chen considered in a recent IDC Analyst Connection. The first question asked:

Cloud-native application architectures promise improved business agility and the ability to innovate more rapidly than ever before. However, many existing conventional applications will provide important business value for many years. Does an organization have to commit 100% to one architecture versus another to realize true business benefits?

As Mary and Gary write, there are indeed “cost and performance benefits of greenfield, extreme scale cloud-native applications running on highly standardized, automated infrastructure.” However, as they also note, bringing in the bulldozers to replace all existing infrastructure and applications isn’t an option for very many businesses. There’s too much investment and, even if it were an option financially, the disruption involved in wholesale replacement would likely offset any efficiency gains.