Earlier this year three quarters of CIOs named application modernisation as a top priority, but at the same time almost 48% of executives admitted it had been over a year since they had made improvements to their application portfolios. Why is there this perceived conflict between what they want to achieve and what they are actioning?

Too often it is the risk to business operations, combined with the cost of another in-place patch or upgrade, that is felt to be too high. On top of that, complex architectures and inconsistent approaches to creating, running, managing and protecting applications are holding development back.

It is the developer who has become crucial, as they become more influential in broader IT and infrastructure decisions

This approach is not sustainable. IDC predicts that, by 2025, nearly two thirds of enterprises will be prolific software producers with code deployed daily, more than 90% of applications will be cloud native, and there will be 1.6 times more developers than today. And it is the developer who has become crucial, as they become more influential in broader IT and infrastructure decisions.

Also, it is containerisation that has been a game-changer for developers to create and deploy applications faster and at unprecedented scale. In fact, this use of containers is only going to grow – according to Gartner, by 2025, more than 80% of software vendors will offer their application software in container format, up from less than 10% today.

IDC predicts by 2025 nearly two thirds of enterprises will be prolific software producers with code deployed daily

Kubernetes, an open-source platform for managing containerised workloads and services, is leading the charge. Currently, 86% of containerised applications are on Kubernetes.

But where are we today? Do enterprises fully understand the opportunity presented by Kubernetes? Where are the hurdles to adoption – and how can partners help enterprises take advantage?

More than 90% of applications will be cloud native and there will be 1.6 times more developers than today

Firstly, let’s start with why enterprises are modernising in this way. Above and beyond everything else, this is about building new revenue-generating customer experiences via applications – as the future of business differentiation and customer-facing services begins and ends with an organisation’s application portfolio.

Then, sitting alongside this, are the pressing needs to manage a growing volume of software vulnerabilities, and to drive competitive advantage from new innovations now being offered by the cloud.

Currently, 86% of containerised applications are on Kubernetes

With these points, however, lie immediate challenges. We are seeing application teams being asked to break down monolithic applications and rebuild as microservices-based applications, development teams under pressure to deliver new features to customers faster, and enterprises facing outsized security risks from compromised containers and or applications.

According to Gartner, by 2025, more than 80% of software vendors will offer their application software in container format

At the heart of all of this is the issue of complexity – that of the modern applications themselves, and how they are often made up of multiple VMs, containers, and services, and run across a variety of heterogeneous architectures. The number one obstacle is that it is difficult to match the needs of applications to the right underlying infrastructure.

The challenge, and opportunity, lies in addressing this at both an application and infrastructure level – solving the developer experience and operator experience across clouds, while addressing the most common scenarios enterprises encounter in their efforts to modernise infrastructure and applications.

Kubernetes, an open-source platform for managing containerised workloads and services, is leading the charge

And the technology to do this is out there; we can now simplify operations of Kubernetes for multi-cloud, centralising management and governance for many clusters and teams across on-premises, public clouds and edge environments.

This is about democratising infrastructure; extending an enterprise ready Kubernetes operating model across organisations’ datacentres and public clouds so they can run and manage modernised workloads alongside existing software – a single platform for running all applications.

Application and development teams being asked to break down monolithic applications and rebuild as microservices-based applications, are under pressure.