Kena Johnson: Modernization is transforming businesses across industries. As organizations upgrade legacy systems, adopt cloud technologies, and automate processes to drive agility and innovation. For IT professionals, this shift is critical for smarter decisions, less risk, and greater efficiency. We'll learn why modernization is crucial for success in today's digital-first world, as Mark Tierney from SEI Sphere joins us to discuss its importance and evolution for IT leaders. Welcome, Mark.
Mark Tierney: Thank you, Kena. Happy to be here.
Kena Johnson: Now, let's learn about what is modernization. Mark, let's start with the basics. In your view, what is the definition of modernization and why is it so critical right now?
Mark Tierney: So as I think of modernization and I think of it from a technology perspective, I think the rote answer or the common answer involves some version of or some use of the word legacy and legacy applications and systems and the use of the word digital, like digital business demands. What is technology modernization? It's the upgrading of legacy applications and systems to meet digital business demands. You'll see those words commonly used. I like to take a bit of a broader view or have a broader definition. To me, modernization is building a technology platform or processes, platforms and processes that have the ability to quickly adapt to change. So the ability to quickly take advantage of doing innovations. With modernization, is your goal to make the IT system more resilient? Is it more affordable? Can you expand and contract as needed? Can you move and react quickly to business needs?
That ability to move at the speed of modern change, to me, is when you're modernizing your systems. You asked also, why is this so critical? Well, modern change is happening so rapidly. I think in my mind of several areas, the main area, the area that comes across obviously most prominently these days is AI. That answer alone can suffice in terms of how modern change is changing so rapidly. AI and with AI, there are many layers, right? You have machine learning. You have to understand neural networks, gen AI, agentic AI. There is a lot to unpack within AI itself that can impact a business.
The second thing I would say is that governments are responding to these changes with their own changing rules and regulations. So they're responding to AI and coming up with their own rules and regulations. That's true at the state level. That's true at the federal level, and that's true at the international level globally. So there's change you have to accommodate. If you're a business, you have to run your business based off these laws and regulations that are constantly getting adjusted because not only not just because of AI, but just the global order in general and everything that is happening. So we're seeing a lot of rapid change there as well.
Lastly, I would just highlight employee mobility. It used to be that you were defined by your company. Your employment was kind of defined by your company, but now that's starting to change in terms of being defined by your brand. So the way we attract and the way we keep our employees, the way we attract talent and find talent is changing rapidly as well, in the face of all this technology change. So all of those are impacted by modernization, all of this impact modernization and why it is so critical.
Kena Johnson: Now, Mark, we're seeing some alarmingly rapid changes in technology. What trends are shaping modernization and what challenges do organizations face as they adapt?
Mark Tierney: Sure. Yeah. So again, I would say I think you're safe. The answer to every technology is every technology question these days is AI. In fact, it's the answer to most business questions as well. Obviously, AI continues to have an enormous impact on what we're doing in the technology world, the business world. And one that's going to, we know that's going to be continue, that's going to continue to happen going forward. And it's hard to predict exactly how it will impact us going forward. And within AI, I would say Agentic, AI is now the hottest topic. So you have these autonomous systems that make decisions. They execute workflow on their own. So that to me is one very, very big trend that continues and will continue going forward. All the people viewing this, they've probably well versed in AI. They've read so much about it. I don't want to overly focus on that because that's not all that's going on.
So the other areas I would highlight would be the global impact of widely used technology systems. So the interconnectedness of IT. If you just even take a look at the last few months, hyperscalers or public clouds such as ... Everybody knows AWS, Azure, Google Cloud. The hyperscalers have made changes recently to their backend infrastructure that have had widespread impact to organizations globally. There's an organizational company that handles a large portion of internet traffic made a change recently in the past month or two. That then impacted what's called DNS for a large number of organizations. There's a ubiquitous security software that probably of 18 months or within the last two years it made a change and had significant impact across companies globally. So that too is a trend we were seeing is that the whole interconnectedness of applications and technology and its overall impact to everybody.
Lastly, I would add, and this is something I touched on previously with regard to access to talent. We talked about employee mobility, but hiring, maintaining that access and finding the means for access to talent for a more mobile and sometimes hybrid workforce has changed the way we do things. And employees are viewing it differently. So all of those things are impacted and have an impact on technology modernization. So what are the challenges companies face as they adapt? Primarily protecting data and intellectual property that can now be a lot harder. So in a highly interconnected world, in an AI-driven world, and particularly a small- and medium-sized business with an audience that doesn't necessarily or hasn't fully grasped the impact that AI could have in our data. So, is where I'm sending my data safe? How can it be used? Is the algorithm I'm using safe?
Is the data real? We hear a lot. Does the algorithm force a specific answer? Can it be altered? Is it hallucinating? So we hear that a lot from our clients right now. That's a big challenge in what they're facing. Secondly, I would say as it relates to interconnectedness of global impact, of software and infrastructure, failures, updated resiliency plans are key. So how often are you updating your plans? Have those plans been tested? Have you run tabletop exercises or real exercises? What does your own resiliency look like? That's one aspect of it. But how more importantly, how resilient are your third parties or the people? You may have your house in order and perfectly fine when there's global issues going on. But the people, you may not be able to do anything if your partners don't have that same level of resiliency. So, it's really important that you focus just on your own resiliency, but know and understand the resiliency that's built into your third parties and your partners in general.
Lastly, with respect to access to talent, I think of it as sort of a two-edged sword of a challenge. One, if you don't modernize, you will have trouble finding new talent for growth. But those new employees and people coming into the workforce, they want to work on modern systems. But if you do modernize, you have these very complex systems, which will require access to new talent. So you often have to rely on good and well-trusted partners there.
Kena Johnson: Now let's move away from trends and focus on taking action. If an organization can only modernize a few things, what should they prioritize to get the most strategic value?
Mark Tierney: Sure. Great question. Love this one. And as I think of a response to this question, think what things are absolutely necessary in order to modernize successfully? First, you have to establish a strong, resilient, reliable network. Without that, you really don't have access to the assets you need, or if you have access, that access is severely limited and unreliable. So what good is it? If you don't have a resilient and performant network, that is a must have for modernization.
Secondly, an information system cybersecurity program that can, one, it can maintain the integrity of the system. Two, it maintains the resiliency of the system, and three, it protects your data. So, without either one of those two things, everything else is at too great a risk, your foundation is weak and there's no point in modernizing if you don't have a strong foundation to build on.
The other thing I would mention here, and it's not necessarily a direct answer to the question, but I would just highlight, and often when we talk to customers and clients, one easy way to modernize—It's not an easy way to modernize, but if you want to get a jump into the modernization boat quickly, one way to do that is to move to a public cloud or take advantage of the hyperscalers. Yes, it certainly has the compute storage you need to run your technology assets, that's there, that's good, but they're also building more, very rapidly building more and more services available, which provide for a decent menu that you can choose from that helps you modernize. So it facilitates that modernization journey, especially in the small and medium-sized business world. I think there are good platforms out there. I would only advise that you get good help in doing so.
Kena Johnson: Now, modernization isn't just about technology, it's also about people and processes. What steps should organizations take to assess their readiness and prepare their teams for change?
Mark Tierney: Sure. So the first thing I'd say, do you have a culture which can handle change? Sure, people are out there thinking myself, I would be thinking, "Well, that's a very nebulous comment. How do I know if I have the right culture? How do I know I prepared for change with that culture?". I would say from my own experience, measuring the right kind of culture for change relies heavily, one, on the mission of the company, and two, on the executive direction, for example. So I don't think there's any one thing, for example, that you could focus on, or one thing that's right that can measure every company. But the question I like starting with is, are my employees comfortable with failing? I'm not saying they should fail or you should fail or that you could expect failure, but modernization requires change and change at times requires making people uncomfortable and stretching those boundaries.So there is an element of fail, but be prepared to fail fast and the employees have to be comfortable with that change. That's the first thing.
The second would be since a lot of culture is derived from executive management, make sure the management is informed and supports the change. So it's a no-brainer, right? But those of us in technology aren't always well versed in explaining to business executives what the return on investment is, especially in cybersecurity and sometimes in networking as well. And we aren't always great at translating IT speak into business speak. So the important aspect is to communicate well. The one thing I would put a plug in here for AI is one thing that AI does very well, it does help you do that translation. So it's a good avenue to lean on AI to help with that effort. And then lastly is just as a corollary to this in general is have a good change management program, have a way to review and assess changes and their impact to business.
The last thing I would say is a recommendation. Don't do it alone. Find the right partner. Odds are that if you're a small and medium sized business, you're not going to be able to modernize without help. Find a partner that fits your culture that is responsive and reliable before you begin that journey.
Kena Johnson: Now, Mark, let's go over some of the dos and don'ts. SEI Sphere is well equipped in helping organizations modernize their environments. But from your experience, what are some dos and don'ts to think about during the process?
Mark Tierney: Sure. So yeah, three dos. I like my list and odd numbers and short. So I'll give you three dos and three don'ts. One we talked about, ensure your culture is ready, that you have the talent, place, communication is clear. Two, change management and governance is important. So those are essential for making sure you're ready to modernize. The last thing I would say is find champions, keep your people informed. We recently went through a copilot migration and the way we started was by finding the champions. Find those people who were very active users, wanted to use it, and those people willing to teach others. Adoption rates were well over 90%, and that was a great win. All those things are important. Does I think from modernization. The don'ts, I would start with don't perform what we call here management by magazine. So don't just read an article in the newspaper or online or in the magazine and say, okay, that is what I have to do because I just read it in the magazine and it's trendy.
So definitely don't choose your tech for trendiness. Second is don't be afraid to stop and evaluate. We talked about failing a little bit earlier. We have a model here, fail fast, but don't be afraid to fail, stop, take a look at it, or measure and make sure everything's in place and good to go and move forward. The last thing I would say is, and again, the repeat, but don't do it alone. Get some help with people who've done it before or experts in the area advice or have them walk you through it would be my last don't.
Kena Johnson: Speaking of getting some help, how does SEI Sphere help organizations modernize with confidence and what makes your approach unique?
Mark Tierney: Sure. So you certainly won't find another MSP out there quite like us. We don't focus our expertise on tools. We put our focus into integration and into platforms. Tools come and go. We prefer a longer-term approach to platform and the integration allows numerous tools to work together cohesively. We like to have a comprehensive view of an organization. We aren't looking at so much at like the output of every tool. We don't get tool-based. We don't like to look at the output tool. We like to look for the outcome of the platform for organization. And I think that's one area of difference. And the other area would be we come at partnership from a different angle than any other MSP, at least we believe, than any other MSP. We built our platforms, our policies, our procedures, protecting the world's most critical financial data. So we're not striving to improve our programs to meet small and medium-sized business standards.
We're trying to bring the highest standards of resiliency, rigor and cybersecurity down to the SMBs or to the SMB domain. So I think that's what makes our approach unique and that's how we like to partner with our organizations.
Kena Johnson: Mark, such great insights. Thank you so much for sharing all that. Great information.
Mark Tierney: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Kena Johnson: If you're ready to begin your modernization journey with an effective strategy and partner, we encourage you to explore the corresponding modernization guidebook and reach out to SEI Sphere to learn how to get started. For the channel company, I'm Kena Johnson.
