Two modes, one goal

In recent articles I've expressed my views on DevOps, Big Data and Cloud – probably the three most topical areas in IT right now. Despite the hype around these buzzwords, they reflect fundamental changes happening in IT at the moment. That said, although the advantages from each trend may seem self-evident, it’s often far from obvious how an IT function can exploit and integrate them within their current environments. Nonetheless, progressive CIOs continue to make great strides in gaining these  advantages and pushing the IT agenda forward. 

Like any end-goal, a journey is required. Gartner categorise different approaches within this journey through the term bi-modal IT – with certain areas being managed as-is, to deliver stability without disruption, and others managed with much greater agility to support new or rapidly changed services. The popular analogy for the two modes involve the characteristics of: the marathon runner, stable and enduring; and the sprinter, rapid and agile. In reality, a marathon runner needs a sprint finish and a sprinter needs training endurance.

If we view bi-modal IT from an end-goal perspective it seems contrary to the DevOps approach, i.e. integrating operational stability with agile development in what could be labelled uni-modal IT. In effect, bi-modal IT and DevOps are two sides of the same coin. However, we can no longer afford to flip from one to the other, both modes of an IT function must support each other seamlessly.

Bi-modal IT and DevOps form part of the same journey, pushing the IT agenda forward. For most CIOs, the key initiatives are fixing problems, planning change and improving service delivery. In a previous article I proposed that their customer, the business, only recognises: quality of service; cost-effectiveness; and simplicity of use (and primarily in that order). When it comes to assessing key initiatives, they certainly serve as useful measures.

Unfortunately quality of service is far from simple to measure. Many only assess this through personal impressions, superficial SLAs and/or project delivery. Often, this may even be in order of reliability. Arguably the only true measure of service quality comes from the consumer of the service. The closer the relationship between the supplier and consumer, the better the quality measures will be. Some consumer objectives will rely on rapid and agile delivery, whereas stability and endurance will be more valuable in others. This variance aside, consumers need both modes employed.

Cost-effectiveness has driven external service delivery in different ways: from outsourcing, to managed services, to cloud. This reflects a shift from the traditional focus on stability to the need for rapid and agile environments. That is not to say that stable outsourced or managed service environments are not cost-effective, but that external sourcing is becoming more viable for cost reduction in fast-moving environments too.

Simplicity of use is less of a deciding factor and more of an expectation. Service consumers no longer want to invest in user training around specific interfaces or functionality. They prefer to minimise any changes from which they will not directly benefit. This highlights the importance of stability. However, when usability needs change, as happened with the shift from desktop to mobile interfaces, consumers expect services to adapt at least as quickly.

All three measures highlight the need for both modes, possibly backing Gartner’s support for bi-modal IT. However, the real danger is to perpetuate legacy IT in any form: technology, process or culture. As Forbes argues, legacy must be managed out of today’s IT function.

It may be more productive to emphasise and sustain the uni-modal IT end-goal, but get there pragmatically via a bi-modal journey.