Viewpoint: Reaping the Benefits of App Modernization Using Microsoft Azure
To develop new capabilities and outperform their competitors, businesses must modernize their applications. However, many organizations struggle with their digitization journeys due to technical debt, a lack of skilled staff and concerns about how much this complex transition will cost.
EPAM’s Dmitry Tikhomirov explains how EPAM’s partnership with Microsoft — along with our unique engineering background — can help clients begin their cloud migration journey and start modernizing their legacy applications.
Why is app modernization so crucial for organizations looking to thrive in today’s digital world?
Organizations are not able to compete properly because their legacy app portfolio is dragging them down, and they’re not able to introduce different capabilities. The recent fuss around technologies such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot demonstrate that if you’re not able to quickly modernize your applications, you will fall behind the competition.
What are the biggest challenges that businesses looking to modernize their applications face?
One of the biggest challenges is understanding where modernization makes sense. In many cases, we see companies stuck in this analysis phase and struggling to understand how they will benefit from a modernization investment. This is holding businesses back when it comes to making decisions.
How does EPAM work with Microsoft Azure customers to help them on their app modernization journey?
Microsoft gives you the ability to understand infrastructure and application dependency, but it doesn’t give you the ability to analyze the application codebase or compatibility with the cloud. We have a toolset that can automate the decision-making as much as possible, helping organizations to start quickly. That extends migration capabilities into full application analysis, helps clients create a full strategy for modernization and helps them understand the business impact.
Not only do we have a toolset that can automate the decision-making process, but we also have our engineering DNA. This means we’re very uniquely positioned not just to create a strategy for modernization, but to actually execute it.
How does partnering with EPAM help organizations embrace new technologies?
When we approach modernization, it’s not just a pure technical game — it’s also a business transformation game. Our technology consultants help businesses find the best technological solutions and educate clients about possible choices. We can accelerate the development of the specific process, consult and share our experience.
How does EPAM help customers ensure they are meeting security requirements and addressing regulatory concerns?
Our approach is to find security issues before we deploy to production, which very much optimizes the cost of the modernization for the client. Because, when you find issues in production, it's quite damaging from a reputational and a financial perspective. If we talk about Azure, everything we deploy would have a landing zone that would have automated security checks. After that, when we deploy specific applications, we make sure that the necessary compliance is there.
Can EPAM help organizations and business leaders with total cost of ownership (TCO) concerns?
In many cases, we actually come in to help our clients optimize costs. For example, in cases where clients have carried out a lift-and-shift migration, they complain that there is a cost increase. We have a proposition where we implement best practices, do a health check and set out ways to optimize spend on Azure.
How does EPAM help to build the confidence of users that are new to Azure?
When we come to a situation wherein the organization hasn't had any cloud experience, we would advise them to implement a cloud center of excellence that manages governance, technological architecture and cloud cost optimization. EPAM also has a unique proposition in that it can educate organizations as they adopt the cloud.
What do you see as the key stages of the modernization journey for Azure customers?
Businesses need to approach modernization in a very holistic way. If people don't plan upfront, we see modernization programs become stuck because they hit some obstacles. Planning in advance and building the proper business case is essential.
How does EPAM help clients that are struggling to modernize due to a lack of skilled in-house staff?
There is a cloud talent shortage, and EPAM has an advantage in that it can bring in teams that understand both application engineering and cloud. From this perspective, we actually help our clients become better and help them understand the cloud. We work in a hybrid model where we can actually educate them by doing projects together.
