In our personal lives we enthusiastically embrace new technology. We count down the days to our next upgrade, eye the latest gadgets and happily bring home smart TVs. Thrilled with the new possibilities we eagerly devour all they have to offer. So why do companies cling to their legacy tech as if it’s a life raft in an ocean of uncertainty?
Enter: the legacy tech conundrum.
Our old tech works so why change?
When your current tech ticks all the operational boxes, what’s the incentive to change? Your relational database is reliable and secure and you don’t need new skills – everyone is familiar with it! Surely adding on a few applications, some more queries and updating some systems will do the job?
Similarly, having invested considerable time, money and effort why ditch it or invest in new software? Especially when substantial institutional knowledge, non-perishable data, business processes and operational protocols are imbedded in these systems. Is it sound business sense to implement a digital transformation plan that requires a high level of technical skill, significant financial investment and could take years to realise? All of these genuine pain points are difficult to ignore – we understand and fully respect them.
So let’s address the main issue
An architecture made up of traditional technologies doesn’t have sufficient capability to weather the current digital revolution and launch you into the future.
We are routinely asking increasingly complex questions of our data. We expect those answers to be accurate, timely, contextual and beneficial. We want our data to be connected and available to everyone.
However, just adding onto our existing architecture is potentially more of a crutch than a solution. Complex SQL queries are difficult to manage and bring potential risk to our operational environment. They will impact on processing and operational capacity, potentially inhibiting workforce productivity.
Aside from this, constraints like data silos create compartmentalised access resulting in a disconnected enterprise. The typical left hand doesn’t know what the right hand’s doing, which is frustrating for customers and employees alike. And we haven’t even discussed concerns like scaling, real-time and issues of compliance.
All of this can result in lost opportunities and exposure to risk. This constrains our ability to innovate and limits our competitive edge.
So what’s the alternative?
Incentives to change
Imagine illuminating your wealth of data to optimise customer experience, minimise waste and maximise revenue. Advances in data storage, event processing, analytics, visualisation and real-time capabilities provide immense customer and operational possibilities. Subsequently, you can implement all those sought after capabilities such as targeted marketing campaigns, tailored products, effective end-to-end account management and innovative services. Inevitably, this translates into satisfied customers and an increase in your brand loyalty potential – something that is harder to come by these days.
Meanwhile, your company flourishes from a myriad of additional benefits – apart from the obvious financial implications. Insights provided by next gen technologies can improve operational efficiency, inform strategic decision-making, pre-empt potential issues and increase productivity, whilst providing a holistic view of your business.
Suddenly, the world is your oyster. You can make your dreams a reality and achieve the impactful paradigms of Augmented Intelligence and Analytics. You can scale rapidly by processing sophisticated queries, sharing data and having easy access to specifics – all whilst maintaining high speed performance!
Conundrum or collaboration?
So, do you ditch your old tech and disrupt operations to update your systems? Of course not. Legacy technologies, such as SQL, still have an important place and will probably remain workhorses for years to come. But you can change, and let’s be honest, it’s time – SQL is over 50 years old. As part of a digital transformation plan, companies need to look at advanced and next-generation technologies that will allow them to thrive in the present and dominate the future!
‘Future’ technologies are already being used by leading brands across the globe. Scratch under the surface of Facebook, LinkedIn, Netflix, Amazon, etc. and you will see this tech hard at work. How do you think these guys can recommend friends, movies and products? Just look at database options like the immensely powerful NoSQL ‘Cassandra’ by Apache, with its high write speed and linearly scalable capabilities.
How about bringing in graph technology to connect your data and establish the enriching relationships between data points? Still batching data? Why not consider a middleware layer such as Apache’s ‘Kafka’, which is used for building real-time data pipelines and streaming apps. It is horizontally scalable, fault-tolerant and wicked fast!
Bridge the gap
We can help you bridge the technology gap.
We can assist with your long term migration and provide capability now. Locstat is a light touch on your current architecture with minimal operational risk. So you can have your recommender system and a rules engine monitoring fraud risk in real-time. You can view all of your customers’ digital touchpoints in a dynamic visual (graph) representation. You can ask complex questions from your data and get answers to give you that competitive edge. Locstat’s partner DataStax enables us to provide you with such capabilities.
With Locstat, you can keep your existing structures whilst having access to graph-based AI and graph-ML, streaming analytics, complex event processing, recommender engines, Customer 360 views, journey mapping and real-time insights. You can integrate new data sources, pop them on a message queue and really get going. We get your tech fit for purpose and open up your future!
Where’s the conundrum now?
Let us help you to transform your business and embrace tomorrow together!