By: Antony Panteli, Head of CIO Advisory, LTIMindtree Consulting (EU & UK)

The composable enterprise is a better way to think about how to structure IT to support the business of modern organizations. In the world of the composable enterprise, we will see changing dynamics, where demand is met, not by individual applications, but by business processes, achieved through the intelligent composition of reusable technology capabilities.

In the composable business paradigm, IT organizations will be able to deliver on business demands faster than ever before. They’ll also be able to use their resources more effectively, leveraging elastic cloud services to dynamically scale up or down as needed. They won’t have to worry about maintaining legacy systems that require expensive maintenance contracts and upgrades every few years.

The Composable Enterprise is not a new concept. Around 2016, Accenture envisioned a modular, flexible business model as the Composable Enterprise in which cloud, AI, and microservices would integrate to create new value streams and business models. In 2020, Gartner hailed the concept as “the future of business”. Yet we have seen only a few forward-thinking companies taking up the challenge of genuine business composability.

Why it’s historically been hard to achieve

The missing pieces in the composable strategy were always, firstly the versatility, elasticity, and availability of IT resources, and secondly the willingness, and indeed the ability of an organization to adopt a modern operating model. Those who have heard me speak previously will know that I long held the view that most enterprise organizations operate in a three speed-lane technology paradox:

1. Technology moves at the speed of light – none of us can honestly claim to always be at the cutting edge, nor do we always want to be.

2. Business ideally wants to move at a speed fast enough to at least maintain parity with competitors, and wherever possible leapfrog to the ‘best next’. Rarely can businesses keep up with the speed of technology, but your competitors are likely doing something that you are not, and you do not want to be left behind.

3. Enterprise IT has historically existed in the slowest lane. We are restricted by budgets, well-intended stage gates, board approvals, skills and experience, technical and architecture approval processes, and even technology ‘radars’. If you want something new or next, in my practical experience, you better not depend on your IT organization to rapidly facilitate!

What this means is that the agility needed for true composability was practically unachievable. In order to get what they need in the timeframe that they actually need it, business teams often end up going outside the organization to get it. Enter the domain of the global systems integrators, and welcome yet another system of siloed capabilities.

What is changing right now?

It’s all about the cloud. It’s no longer novel. It’s no longer an option, really. Every organization, with the exception of very few who have tacitly decided to keep things local, has a foothold in at least one public cloud provider. And now they are learning fast about the value of Anything-as-a-Service. I’m not talking about the technical people; they already knew what was possible. Actually, I’m talking about the business users who are making efforts to empower themselves with cloud knowledge. In the last year, I have collaborated with HR managers who are cloud-certified, CFOs who are aspiring towards cloud-certs, and I know of at least one organization that has insisted that every employee, no matter what their role in the company, achieves a minimum foundational level of cloud certification as part of their enterprise cloud enablement strategy.

When the business value of cloud is understood by businesspeople, and it is no longer seen as just a technology option, but rather a wholesale business strategy, we know remarkable things might be about to happen. These are conditions in which the business becomes incentivized to adopt composable architecture principles; the principles which will inevitably drive significant improvements in technology ROI and TTM.

Composable Enterprise, enabled by cloud computing, drives the convergence of infrastructure, data fabrics and engineering paradigms. With this comes a necessity to re-examine business models and better, more agile ways of working. That which previously seemed to be the unique proposition of startups and genuinely digital-native companies is no longer a protected dominium, hiding behind objections of culture rigidity and resistance to change. Now is the time for even legacy enterprises, loaded with technical debt, and poorly documented processes, to challenge the status-quo and demand better, more efficient digital ways of working.

Composable enterprise is the modern way to think about IT

With the cultural normalization of cloud computing, the composable enterprise is a new way to think about IT. In this model, applications and services are delivered as a set of components that can be assembled in different configurations to meet the needs of the business. Cloud computing is the key enabler for this new way of thinking. It is only in the cloud you can achieve the elasticity, agility, and cost transparency that will power composable infrastructure and products.

Key takeaway: Composable enterprise and cloud computing are two powerful business tools necessary for competitive advantage in all digital markets.