Enterprises Evaluate Infrastructure App by App
As a mature business, Genworth still operates its own data center resources for certain operational workloads. Its embrace of cloud-native infrastructure is relatively new, growing from the expansion of its digital properties over the past few years, including CareScout. Today, Genworth operates with a multicloud strategy, using Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services to support its cloud footprint.
That strategy requires judgment about which workloads belong in the cloud — and which don't.
“Some technology is just not worth the expense to modernize and force-fit into our cloud services,” Taylor explains. “We’re very intentional with our closed-block business as to what things we think are cloudworthy or cloud-valuable. A good example is our data environment. We run our data environment in our data center today. But we are investing in a more modern technology solution that will be hosted in the cloud, and we will run all of our data in the cloud eventually.”
For growth-focused CareScout, however, Genworth has built an architecture that is cloud-based, making it quick and easy to add new services as the company expands its long-term-care service offerings.
“Running off a cloud-hosted solution makes it easier to snap in new services,” Taylor says. “Also, from an OPEX perspective, it enables us to spin up things when we need more, and spin down things when we need less. That is a really powerful feature that helps us manage the operating expenses relative to the platform.”
A broader change is underway in how organizations think about modernization, says Ashish Nadkarni, vice president and general manager of enterprise infrastructure at IDC. Businesses aren’t just deciding which applications should move to the cloud. Today, they’re often considering how the infrastructure supporting those applications can position them to take advantage of technologies that may not have been part of the original modernization plan.
AI is one increasingly important consideration.
“AI is putting a new veneer on the cloud services model,” Nadkarni says. “Not only do enterprise applications benefit from it but also some of the up-and-coming AI initiatives that businesses are considering.”
READ MORE: How Microsoft simplifies modernization through consolidation.
Enterprises Evaluate Infrastructure App by App
That makes the choice of cloud platform about more than the immediate workload being migrated. Businesses need to consider how their cloud strategy can support the broader portfolio of applications and services over time.
Such was the case with Genworth and Microsoft 365 Copilot. Its investment team took the time to meaningfully implement the technology into its workflows.
“We’re a large Microsoft shop, so when it came time to explore AI, it made sense to use Copilot,” Taylor says. “And as an organization, we now find ourselves in this step-change moment, reimagining our processes and applying AI to them. Copilot and other solutions may be a good fit, depending on the level of sophistication and automation we’re aiming for.”
When it comes to cloud strategy, businesses need to look beyond initial use cases and consider all of their server workloads. They should evaluate cloud providers with horizontal expansion in mind and consider the whole portfolio of services that are available, including AI.
“If you are looking at the Amazon ecosystem, for example, you aren’t just looking at the first-party services offered by Amazon, but also the marketplace of all the vendors that offer services on Amazon’s cloud,” says Nadkarni. “It’s this adjacency, more than anything, that is important for these companies.”
