Windows 8 represents the very latest in application development and deployment architecture from Microsoft, allowing today’s developers to showcase their applications on a new and modern platform.

For many, staying current with the latest technology is critical in addressing IT risk, and also business continuity issues. But what if you’re coding in an older language or have existing apps that you haven’t yet modernized? Don’t worry; innovative technologies make it simple and easy to move your existing applications to the Windows 8 architecture, without changing your application code.

Windows 8 also offers the IT group the possibility of moving to a simplified architecture. Whether you’re coding in COBOL, C#, or VB.NET, the Windows 8 platform is compatible with all of these enterprise development languages. Windows 8 is more than just the next operating system; it is the next platform step for application modernization.

Additionally, long-standing, more complex applications, such as those from banks, insurance carriers and travel agencies, will continue to operate, servicing their users, but now leveraging the very latest and modern technology platform. This provides both a current sense of stability, but also a future path for innovation.

Application performance is often seen as an advantage in moving to the latest operating environment. Many expect that new and existing application deployments can be executed faster and require fewer resources and management. This can be the case in some scenarios, but not across all application deployments.

Certain environments are more appropriate for enterprise application development – Windows 8 is a great example because it supports an industry leading Integrated Development Environment – Visual Studio. Visual Studio combined with Windows 8 increases application development agility and efficiency, giving programmers the ability to take advantage of productive feature sets, and also leverage more modern capabilities, like the Windows 8 tile and touch screen features — a popular addition to the platform. Essentially, Windows 8 delivers a new, efficient, and modern operating environment for enterprise class application development and deployment.

An interesting and further impact of the Windows 8 platform on the development world is its effect on development team behavior. The new platform, as its predecessors, will encourage software engineers to think about whether their applications area ready for the next-generation development and deployment platform. If, however, they aren’t, the popularity of the new platform will motivate them to prepare for that move. This will lead to application compatibility features and roadmaps being developed by architecture teams– and more Windows 8 ready applications will begin to surface in the Windows App store.

So there you have it. While Windows 8 won’t necessarily revolutionize application performance, it will undeniably change the development process and development team behavior. Not only will it challenge existing application architectures, but it will also enable these applications to adopt a more dynamic and user-friendly experience. Today’s application developers will have a whole new environment on which to deliver apps and a new challenge to solve when it comes to application compatibility and modernization.

It will be interesting to watch the continued adoption of the Windows 8 platform, particularly within the corporate market, as organizations begins to prepare for this next wave of innovation.

 

The advent of the savvy end-user and the trend towards BYOD has changed the way in which services must be provided by IT. As smartphone capabilities further develop, so does the level of expectations for added functionality. 

Businesses will find it impossible to ignore mobile if they wish to remain competitive in the next few years and must consider the most effective way to develop and adapt business applications to the needs of the mobile user.

It comes as no surprise that a new study from Forrester Research  predicts that mobile technology will have “dramatic effect” on back-office IT systems. Modern users expect 24/7 mobile access to all the applications and online services that they would use on their desktop or laptop computer – visiting e-commerce sites, accessing their bank online, and more recently, loading their work applications. Yet, according to Forrester, “hidden costs and disruptions” are set to plague organizations that do not make appropriate pre-emptive action.

The report further suggests that mobile projects hide a variety of potential pitfalls as a result of infrastructure that is ill prepared for exploding activity volumes. However, organizations need not think that embracing mobile will require a costly and complete overhaul of existing IT infrastructure to resolve these issues. 

Businesses should consider re-using as much of their existing business applications and processes as possible in order to guarantee integrity, continuity and security of service for the future. Potential threats to the infrastructure of exploding activity volumes can be mitigated by making smart choices about application provision and workload management, to relieve pressure and offer a more cost- effective and viable solution to adopt mobile.

So what should businesses be doing to embrace mobile in a cost- efficient fashion? There are several steps that businesses can take to ensure that their IT infrastructures are prepared for the mobile explosion:

 

Re-use and adapt: All too often businesses approach mobile by developing new applications when in fact they could simply re-use and adapt existing, core back-end applications. The benefit of this approach is that costs are reduced and the existing infrastructure is not compromised. 

 

While many may not consider COBOL for adapting business applications to support mobile use, its simplicity and therefore adaptability, makes this programming language, which accounts for approximately 70% of all critical business processes, the perfect candidate to take IT into the mobile era.  With COBOL, developers are able to modernize applications to support new mobile applications across a wide number of technical platforms. COBOL can be used in each instance to efficiently deliver business services and their supporting data from the back-end to the user. The benefits of re-using COBOL systems rather than re-writing them are numerous and include a faster delivery of IT service, at lower cost and risk, while retaining intellectual property and competitive advantage.

 

Thoroughly test your mobile apps: When undertaking a considerable project such as adapting to mobile, testing is one area that cannot afford to be compromised. However, traditional testing practices can mean that projects can overrun on time as well as budget. By moving application testing for mobile, web and related back-end systems to a more cost- effective environment that is easy to use, testing phases are able to be completed much faster and more thoroughly without eating into mainframe power. These environments also lend themselves better to supporting test automation and performance testing needs.

 

Review your workload deployment strategy: In order to cope with potential spikes in activity that mobile may bring, many businesses may look to add extra back-office capacity. However, this can be a costly solution. For example mainframe system capacity may be in the region of approximately $4,000 per MIPS. Instead, IT can look to optimize workload deployment and seize advantage of server choice to free up precious capacity to support mobile application needs.

 

Adapting your IT processes to mobile, if approached in a strategic and efficient fashion does not have to be the costly and disruptive burden that Forrester suggests. Much can be done with existing IT infrastructures and core assets to improve efficiency without requiring complete overhauls or re-builds that ensure that the IT infrastructure is able to take businesses in to the future as cost-efficiently as possible.