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If you are App-y and you know it, tap-tap-tap

Every company today is a software company or is about to turn one, or pick one. Dropping the ‘why’s, Kenneth from CA Technologies, at its recent summit in APJ, asks ‘why not’

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Pratima Harigunani
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SINGAPORE: Nike has turned into an experience about wearables and a new tech-powered brand; Amazon has morphed from books shelves to infrastructure stacks and Tesco is not just another grocer but someone who delivers to your home when you greet the QCRs – in short, companies and brands today are walking and talking applications so deeply that it’s a well-embedded reflex and no more a novelty.

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But being tech-savvy and tech-enabled are still two different levels, as Kenneth Arredondo, President and General Manager, Asia Pacific and Japan, CA Technologies highlighted at the APJ Summit.

As he rolled down the window on how the world is turning all about a refreshed application-economy, he and some other experts explained the view that flanks this emerging picture.

Citing a recent study conducted by CA, Ken, as he is fondly addressed by his team, zoomed the lens on new app-energy that is or is going to fuel enterprises. He showed how 57 per cent of enterprises in APJ accept application economy as something significantly disruptive – a point worth a second glance as this figure is higher than America or EMEA.

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In fact, and in an interesting twist of things as we know them, some 38 per cent are looking to acquire a software company, and what do you know- two per cent have already done this.

Ken wasn’t too surprised at this because he opines that the pressure is only mounting to deliver products and services to always-on customers, with new innovation and functionality and all that without compromising security.

The application-divide is going to be crucial in the emerging imperialism of applications it seems. Specially when we see Ken talking about 17 per cent enterprises as leaders, 25 per cent as laggards and 58 per cent as potential leaders. He stressed on how leveraging this new way of things optimally and wisely is different ball game altogether than just being tech-savvy.

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Daphne Chung, Associate Director, Software Research, IDC, Asia Pacific, was there too and she surmised that as the third platform gears up for as much as 64 per cent slice of tech spends by 2020, the world should get ready to witness one-third of top 20 market leaders getting disrupted by competition that uses this third-platform (that encompasses mobility, social networking, Cloud, Big Data, Analytics) smartly.

The app-economy is a hard-to-turn-an-ostrich-head-upon trend. Yet 80 per cent of AP-based organizations are not equipped to harness forces like third-platform Chung wonders. She advises enterprises to try to fail small and do little things frequently to tap this new scenario with a wise approach.

“Software is turning into a big part of any brand experience and that’s why and where CA is digging its expertise deeply on Devops for agile development, continuous delivery; on managing cloud where IT is run like a business with sharper project or portfolio management capabilities, service management and enterprise mobility management; and on API management as well as security as a service for a seamless and complete approach to the app-era. CA is creating alliances for advanced customer outcomes and leveraging its over 35 years of lineage in performance monitoring etc well to escort enterprises deftly into this new app-imperative.” Ken pointed out.

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In conversation with CIOL, Ken also remarked on what he makes of the ‘software-defined’ infection touching every piece from networking, server infrastructure to storage these days. “I find this a good force and this is something that is part of CA’s DNA and what we have been doing so far. We have been and can make all these complex threads simple, because that is what that is going to really matter ahead. No doubt, we are investing over 600 million$ each year in new development.”

When asked on how yesteryear’s ‘point’ approach can make way for ‘fluid and converged’ applications he explained how that is a difficult goal but that’s what new solutions are all about. “Server virtualization and other new elements are impacting the approaches for enterprises. We are working on how to make all components seamless and making everything as uncomplicated as possible is a big part of what we do and strive for with our new offerings.”

Commenting on the sidelines about finely-combing the line between Shadow IT and Rogue IT, Andi Mann, VP, Office of CTO, Strategic Solutions, ventured forth to say that business people do not really want to be IT people. “They are being forced to do it, and I don’t think they necessarily want to do it. IT should rather embrace your inner ‘rogue’ and try to learn what they actually want and what you might be missing to catch.”

Ken dovetailed to add that this reeks of some Déjà vu of the Client-server shifts and the only answer is to turn agile and collaborative.

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Talking of turning agile, the summit also had Ashok Vasan, VP, Application Delivery, APJ, CA, elaborating on how DevOps is redefining everything. “Our study has shown that enterprises falling in the leader-bracket are much more likely to have adopted DevOps (43 per cent) and only four per cent laggards have done so. In the next two years, DevOps adoption would get even stronger hinting at 54 per cent leaders doing it and 31 per cent laggards joining in. Leaders know the worth of measuring DevOps using external metrics like revenue or time-to-market instead of internal metrics.”

As he explained CA’s focus and capabilities on Agile Parallel Development, Continuous Delivery and Agile Operations, he put the spotlight on how multiple development teams, too many dependencies, constraint of resources, need for more releases, manual release processes, too many disparate tools, and excessive error rates are making way for fresher, stronger approach to application delivery.

Mann captured the mise-en-app-scene well when he underlined that every business in being re-written by software as the new flavor of virtual, multi-device-wired, multi-app lives that customers are living is changing everything. Apps are used by companies for competitive advantage and IoT, API-assembled apps etc would be just a glimpse of a new world approaching everyone.

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