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DevOps Automation + Cloud Pak for Applications: Accelerating your Application Modernization Journey

By Ankit Kumar posted Tue May 21, 2024 02:37 AM

  

Overview

Application modernization is essential to achieving a competitive edge in the current fast-paced landscape. But, ensuring its rapid delivery, security, reliability, and high quality are the most essential elements of this process.

DevOps Automation is equipped with cutting-edge features designed to help customers in every stage of modernization from planning to delivery.

This article aims to equip you with the essential information to succeed in your modernization journey. It delves into how DevOps can streamline your modernization processes, empowering you to deliver with confidence and gain a strategic edge in the competitive landscape.

Attachplay Value

Introduction to DevOps and CP4A

Let's briefly explore Cloud Pak for Applications, aka “CP4A” and IBM DevOps Automation to understand how their combination can accelerate your modernization journey.

DevOps Automation: Delivering software and services at the speed the market demands requires teams to iterate and experiment rapidly. They must deploy new versions frequently, driven by feedback and data. By leveraging IBM DevOps Automation’s continuous testing, delivery, monitoring, and value stream management, organizations like yours can:
  • Become more efficient
  • Measure the flow of value through your DevOps lifecycle
  • Ensure DevOps automation value
 
 
App Modernization powered by CP4A: Application modernization is the process of taking existing legacy applications and modernizing their platform infrastructure, internal architecture, and/or features. In this context, CP4A helps organizations in application development, transformation, and deployment for applications including replatforming and refactoring onto Red Hat OpenShift as containers.
Much of the discussion around application modernization today is focused on monolithic, on-premises applications—typically updated and maintained using waterfall development processes—and how those applications can be brought into cloud architecture and release patterns, namely microservices and DevOps.

Challenges: The Importance of DevOps in Application Modernization

In today's fast-evolving technological landscape, application modernization has become necessary for organizations aiming to stay competitive and meet the ever-growing demands of their users. Below are some pain points organizations encounter when they don't attempt modernization or attempt it without using tools such as CP4A and DevOps automation.

Problems
At the center of this modernization journey lies DevOps, a set of practices that emphasizes automation, collaboration, and integration between software development, security, and IT operations teams. DevOps plays a key role in streamlining the modernization process by breaking down traditional silos, enabling faster delivery cycles, and promoting continuous feedback and improvement. By using IBM DevOps Automation, organizations can achieve greater agility, scalability, reliability, and faster time to value in their modernization efforts. From optimizing legacy runtimes to embracing cloud-native architectures, DevOps empowers teams to innovate and deliver value to customers at an unprecedented pace. In a nutshell, DevOps is not just a methodology - it's a much-needed cultural shift that drives security, innovation, efficiency, and success in application modernization endeavors.

Important Use Cases:

Cloud Pak for Applications facilitates enterprise modernization by reshaping the application landscape through re-platforming and refactoring onto Red Hat OpenShift as containers. IBM DevOps seamlessly complements this endeavor by ensuring application security, reliability, and expedited delivery.

use cases
To maximize the benefits of modernization and get the best ROI, enterprises require additional support from IBM DevOps tools in the form of the below:
 
  • IBM DevOps Plan assists in planning and managing project tasks efficiently.
  • IBM DevOps Create generates architecture from code changes, facilitating streamlined development processes.
  • IBM DevOps Test evaluates the reliability and performance of code changes through comprehensive UI testing, API testing, and performance testing, with the added benefit of virtualization to expedite development.
  • IBM DevOps Deploy coordinates the movement of code and dependencies effectively, ensuring proper governance and orchestrating large-scale application deployments on the OpenShift environment with modern application runtimes like Liberty.
  • IBM DevOps Accelerate provides invaluable insights and identifies potential risks and bottlenecks early in the development, refactoring, or re-platforming phases.
 
It means IBM DevOps offers end-to-end support for modernization initiatives, empowering enterprises to navigate their transformation journey with confidence and efficiency. 
 
IBM DevOps helps from the bottom of the pyramid starting from runtime modernization and extending to Cloud-native development.

However, the distinguished use cases are as follows:

This picture shows how IBM DevOps can bring value to each stage of modernization entry points. For example, inbuilt ML tools can be used for performance test analysis when an organization is adopting modern runtimes.
 
The left side of the pyramid shows how solutions such as DevOps Plan can be used to plan your project efficiently and DevOps Accelerate can provide essential visibility and information about bottlenecks and add value across the modernization life-cycle. 

Benefits: How IBM DevOps automation unlocks the true value of CP4A

IBM DevOps automation plays a crucial role in unlocking the true value of Cloud Pak for Applications. It also helps in revolutionizing the way organizations approach the digital landscape modernization, software migrations, software development, and deployment activities. By seamlessly integrating DevOps Automation products with Cloud Pak for Applications, organizations can accelerate their development lifecycle, streamline operations, and enhance overall efficiency.
 
One of the key aspects where IBM DevOps Automation excels is its ability to provide end-to-end testing abilities. From UI, functional, API, performance testing, and automating repetitive tasks such as secure deployment, DevOps Automation provides tools to optimize security in your digital landscape. This automation not only reduces manual effort, but also minimizes the risk of human error, leading to more reliable and consistent software releases.
 
 Additionally, IBM DevOps automation offers comprehensive monitoring and analytics capabilities, allowing teams to gain valuable insights into their application performance, bottlenecks, improvement areas, and delivery risks. By leveraging these insights, organizations can make data-driven decisions, optimize their applications for better performance, continuously improve the user experience, and gain faster time to value.
IBM DevOps Automation provides:
  • Faster time to value
  • Increased value from existing investments through out of the box integrations
  • Complete governance and reporting across application delivery and the software life-cycle
What does the solution look like and what are the key outcomes?
This solution will be delivered as a bundle of two IBM offerings.
  • Cloud Pak for Applications
  • IBM DevOps for Cloud Paks
These two part numbers should be owned to use end-to-end capabilities of DevOps with Cloud Pak for Applications.
 
Key Outcomes:
IBM DevOps Automation, with its five core components and integration with LLM and AI assistants, helps enterprises accelerate the modernisation. The key outcomes of the integration with CP4A are:
  1. Enhanced Productivity: This is achieved through automated workflows, data-driven insights, and the integration of automation tools that streamline processes and accelerate delivery.
  2. Reduced Risk: This is achieved by strengthening governance, optimizing developer talent, and using AI and automation to enhance transparency and expedite audit reporting.
Conclusion:
In summary, IBM DevOps Automation helps organizations harness the full potential of Cloud Pak for Applications by enabling faster delivery, higher quality, increased productivity, reduced risk, and greater innovations. By adopting DevOps principles and leveraging IBM DevOps Automation tools, organizations can accelerate their digital transformation journey and stay ahead in today's competitive landscape.

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