Achieving Application Readiness Maturity The key to accelerated service delivery and faster adoption of new application technologies

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1 WHITE PAPER Achieving Application Readiness Maturity The key to accelerated service delivery and faster adoption of new application technologies

2 Achieving Application Readiness Maturity Executive Summary Imagine that you re a production line manager in a manufacturing company and you re under pressure to deliver an increasing number of products that are rapidly growing in complexity. You also have to deliver an increasing number of versions of each product. And you have to speed up the production line substantially. If you can t meet these requirements, your company s customers will find what they need elsewhere. This is exactly the situation in which IT finds itself today. Line of business owners in the enterprise are demanding more applications of greater complexity for a greater number of operating environments and devices, and they want them delivered quickly. If you can t give them what they want, they may go around IT and acquire the applications on their own, a phenomenon known as shadow IT. That not only drives up acquisition and support costs but also jeopardizes security and compliance. Adding to the challenge is the increasing strategic use of mobile apps in the enterprise. Thought leadership articles warn about security risks that result from mobile applications leaking data outside the enterprise such as through the use of cameras, copy-paste operations or connections to cloud services. Yet IT organizations have little or no institutional knowledge of how mobile apps behave when deployed and used, or how to shape that behavior to support enterprise standards. And there are few tools or techniques available to assess the mobile applications in use. To address the challenge, IT must achieve and maintain a high level of agility and be prepared for continual change. The goal is to position IT to provide business owners with all the applications they need, when they need them, on the operating systems and devices they choose while still retaining control. To meet this goal, you must maintain a portfolio of applications ready for immediate deployment to a wide variety of operating systems and devices, keep applications current with the latest updates and patch levels, while retiring out of date and redundant applications. You also have to migrate applications to new operating systems and devices, to new versions of existing platforms, and to virtualized environments. In addition, you have to continually add new applications to the portfolio. At the same time, you need to drive down costs by maximizing efficiency such as by rationalizing the application portfolio, automating processes, and enabling end users to serve themselves in requesting applications. Considering the complexity of today s applications, the number of operating environments and devices, and the rapid release of new versions of applications and environments, maintaining continual application readiness is a tall order. This paper presents the six-step Application Readiness process and describes a four-level maturity model that you can use to assess your organization s maturity in that process. It also describes how Flexera Software can help you get to higher levels of maturity so you ll be better prepared for change. Defining the Application Readiness Leveraging its extensive experience in helping tens of thousands of customers, Flexera Software has developed a field-proven, six-step process for maintaining continuous Application Readiness. 2

3 Identify Identify applications and new requests Rationalize Assess Compatibility Plan Fix & Package Management and Reporting Validate and eliminate redundancy Determine compatibility for the target environments and packaging formats Plan resources required Package and test for target environments Deploy Publish application for deployment Figure 1: Application Readiness process This process, illustrated in Figure 1, provides a standardized method for getting enterprise applications tested, packaged and deployed into the enterprise environment. The process consists of six steps: Identify. Provide a mechanism for line of business and application owners to request new applications to be added to the portfolio and made available for immediate deployment to all required operating platforms and devices. The mechanism must capture sufficient information that not only uniquely identifies the requested application but also enables its proper packaging and deployment. This step requires a centralized application repository that contains an accurate inventory of all applications available for deployment including physical, virtual and mobile. Rationalize. Determine the validity of the request. Is the request approved? Is the requested application in the authorized portfolio, and if not, is an alternative available? Is the application licensed? The rationalize step utilizes the information in the centralized application repository described in the Identify step and eliminates any duplicate entries. Mobile applications can also be reviewed, both internal and public store apps, to gain knowledge of the features and behaviors that may leave the enterprise open to risk. Assess Compatibility. Determine the compatibility of the requested applications with the target operating platforms and devices to ensure error free deployment to end-user devices. Identify any incompatibilities. Automate testing wherever possible. Include mobile applications and verify that they function properly on the target mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, and on mobile operating systems. Plan. Determine what needs to be done to prepare the application for deployment. What must be done to fix any incompatibilities discovered? What packaging formats are required? What resources are needed? What mobile application management policies should be established? Fix and Package. Fix any discovered incompatibilities and package the application in the required formats for deployment. Validate that applications follow best practices and conform to enterprise policies. Deploy. Pass the application to the appropriate enterprise deployment system. This includes Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, Symantec Client Management Suite powered by Altiris and AirWatch Mobile Device Management, to deploy mobile apps. At the same time, publish the application to the enterprise app store (Flexera Software s App Portal) for immediate access by the user community. By implementing this process, IT is poised to meet the application demands of the business in a timely and reliable manner while keeping costs in check and minimizing risk. Learn more in the white paper: Six Steps to Application Readiness A Four-level Model of Maturity The ultimate goal of Application Readiness is to establish an automated, end-to-end process for managing applications over their entire lifecycles, from acquisition to retirement. That requires standardization of process steps, seamless integration within and across steps, and a high degree of automation. It also requires integration with other related business processes such as software license compliance and application deployment processes. 3

4 Packaging to Predictable Application Delivery Homogenous Environment Complexity Heterogenous Change Ready Level 4 Are we ready for change? Proactively manage applications to prepare for future technology changes, integrate related business processes for end-to-end application lifecycle automation, enable self-service application delivery to improve user satisfaction. Maturity and Business Value Efficient Delivery Level 3 Standard Level 2 Basic Packaging Level 1 Is our process efficient? Leverage automation and process workflows across a wide range of technology to increase packaging team productivity and accelerate application delivery. Have packaging standards been established? Implement standardized packaging processes to improve quality and consistency of application deployments to reduce support costs. How are applications made ready for deployment? Package applications individually for a single computing platform for deployment through client management systems. Application Readiness Identify Rationalize Assess Plan Fix & Compatibility Package Deploy Figure 2: Application Readiness Maturity Model Flexera Software has defined an Application Readiness Maturity Model that provides a framework for continual improvement of Application Readiness maturity (See Figure 2.). An organization may be positioned at different levels of maturity for different steps. For example, an organization may be at level 1 in the Identify step and at level 2 in the Fix and Package step. Use the model as a guide to assess your current processes and determine what you can do to improve them. The business benefits are compelling and include dramatic acceleration of application delivery, lower costs due to increased efficiency, and faster adoption of new applications and technologies. By understanding where you re positioned in the maturity model, you will be better able to chart a path to higher levels of business value. You can identify where you can make improvements, analyze the steps needed to move up the maturity curve, and prioritize which steps are most critical. Each step yields incremental efficiencies, resulting in faster and more reliable application delivery, lower costs and decreased risk. Moving Up the Maturity Curve The following sections describe the typical characteristics of an organization at each of the four maturity levels. Level 1 - Basic Packaging How are applications made ready for deployment? At this level, the IT staff performs only basic packaging. The attitude here is just get the job done. IT handles all requests in an ad hoc, one-off manner, resulting in ad hoc provisioning and procurement. There s no process standardization and little or no alignment of the different teams involved. The mostly manual process proceeds as follows: The line of business or application owner requests an application using a free-form help desk ticket or . A problem here is that free-form entry is subject to incomplete information and prone to error. The request is forwarded to the packaging team. The team does not validate the request or check to see if the application has been licensed. The application owner assumes that responsibility. No rationalization is done and application sprawls builds up over time The packaging team does not perform compatibility assessment but instead relies on vendor documentation. IT then waits for users to call with issues. There is no planning. 4

5 The packaging team, necessarily made up of highlyskilled technicians, does whatever it takes to package the requested application. Packaging is done in a one-off manner. The packaging team manually hands the application off to the deployment team with no specific information on how to move the application to the deployment system. Results The process is highly inefficient and results in poor service levels and high costs in fulfilling application requests. The time from request to fulfillment can be weeks or even months. Because there is no compatibility testing and no user acceptance testing, the deployed application may have issues. It s up to the user to find and report them. The result is low user satisfaction and an increased load on the service desk. Also, because there is no standardization, deployed applications tend to be expensive to maintain and upgrade. The process subjects the organization to considerable risk. That includes the risk of non-compliance in that the deployed application may not be licensed or authorized by the organization. There is also a high audit risk and possible unbudgeted expenses at true-up time. What s more, there s the risk of application sprawl due to lack of in-place controls. Mobile apps present even more risk in that IT may not be fully aware of the services and data they access. Key Recommendations Create a central application repository Standardize application packaging processes Level 2 - Standard Have packaging standards been established? At this level, IT has achieved some degree of process standardization, developing and documenting packaging processes and establishing standards. IT has also established a central application repository enabling IT to validate requests and develop dashboards and reports. In addition, IT may now be tracking some basic service level metrics. However, the processes are not integrated within or across steps and the functional teams are still not aligned. Moreover, standards are usually established for only a single operating environment, most often Windows. Application rationalization is a project performed every few years the Configuration Manager Administrator is asked to provide a point in time export of raw inventory data, that is then manipulated to remove application noise (drivers, updates, games, etc.) and duplicates, to produce an accurate application inventory. Here s how the process typically plays out at Level 2: The line of business or application owner enters a request through a templated help desk ticket. The ticket is designed to capture specific application identification and information on application deployment requirements. The packaging team validates the request by manually consulting the central application repository but does not check to verify the application has been licensed. The packaging team performs manual compatibility testing for Windows and some virtual applications, but not mobile apps There is not a high level of planning. The packaging team manually fixes any discovered incompatibilities and manually packages the application for deployment following a documented process. The packaging team manually hands off the package to the deployment team, providing little information on how to move application to the deployment system. The deployment team performs only minimal deployment and user acceptance testing before deploying the package. Results On the positive side, standardization and documentation of packaging processes result in more consistent application deployments. These deployments are easier to maintain and support. Standardization also results in some improvement in delivery times and reduced cost. But problems remain. Rolling out new or upgraded applications can be unpredictable and disruptive. And because the standards are established for only a single operating environment, bringing on new technologies such as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and mobile applications is difficult and can be disruptive to the business. Key Recommendations Codify standard processes for physical, virtual, and mobile applications Automate process steps with work flow automation Faster Service Delivery Previously it could take up to five days to build an application, AdminStudio reduced this to one day. -Benny Barry Application Manager Sun Life Financial Inc. 5

6 Level 3 - Efficient Delivery Is our process efficient? At Level 3, IT focuses on increasing its efficiency and productivity in delivering applications to requesters. To that end, IT has established a single end-to-end Application Readiness process that includes comprehensive compatibility assessments. The process is integrated within and across steps, streamlining and integrating previously disjointed packaging and compatibility testing processes. Integration also brings together previously unaligned functional groups. At this level, IT has automated many of the tasks within the processes. IT has also created an application library, has centralized policies and governance, and manages and reports service levels. Application rationalization is sometimes performed prior to transformation projects to help decrease the number of applications that must be managed and reduce the cost of migrating unneeded and redundant applications. At Level 3, requests are handled in a more efficient manner: The line of business or application owner enters a request using a dedicated, structured request process that gathers application identity and deployment requirements information. The process is transparent and enables the requester to monitor request status. The packaging team validates the request by manually referencing an external data source such as a configuration management database (CMDB). Compatibility testing is done automatically across multiple target environments and multiple virtualization formats to determine best fit. Packaging is done according to a best-practices plan that incorporates compatibility testing results. Packages can be reused, increasing the efficiency of the packaging team and permitting faster service delivery. The packaging process seamlessly distributes packages and application model metadata to both test and production deployment system (such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager) as well as publishing applications to the App Portal enterprise app store for immediate delivery to the user community. Results The end-to-end, automated process greatly increases the efficiency and productivity of the IT staff. Planning is more accurate. The process accelerates the planning, packaging, and testing of physical, virtual and mobile applications. The result is faster service delivery and lower costs. Key Recommendations Integrate and automate processes between IT teams and related business groups Publish tested and approved applications directly to end-users via the enterprise app store. Rationalize application requests as part of the daily Application Readiness process AdminStudio Improves Operational Efficiency Please estimate the time you saved by automating testing and remediating fixes for applications using AdminStudio. 14% 14% 9% 7% 15% 15% 26% Over 70%: 7% 50-60%: 14% 40-50%: 14% 30-40%: 9% 20-30%: 15% 10-20%: 15% Under 10%: 26% Source: Survey of 87 users of Flexera Software AdminStudio Level 4 - Change Ready Are we ready for change? At Level 4, IT is ready for change and can quickly adopt new technologies like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) or Mobile Application Management and keep up with the increasing frequency of software updates and releases. Here IT has implemented a complete, end-to-end automated process for managing applications across their entire lifecycles, from purchase to retirement. IT has codified packaging standards and best practices, automated the request/fulfillment processes, and established a single point of service for applications and licenses. At this level, IT has integrated the Application Readiness process with other related business processes. This includes integration with Software License Optimization and IT service management processes to ensure that licenses are available for requested applications, optimize license spend, and improve service delivery and support. In addition, IT has empowered end users to serve themselves in requesting applications using a consumer-like process. Users simply select the desired application from an enterprise app store. The requests are automatically validated, checked for license availability, routed for approval (if necessary), and the applications are delivered to the requesters quickly and reliably. 6

7 At Level 4, the end-to-end process is fully automated. The line of business or application owner enters a request using a specialized, request process that automates the collection of requirements and initiates the Application Readiness process. The request is validated through automatic lookup of application information in an external application data source such as CMDB to confirm that the application is approved and purchased. The team then rationalizes each request with direct and continual access to the most current inventory of applications. Each request is verified against the continually updated and normalized inventory of applications to determine if it is a duplicate and already packaged, a new version to upgrade and replace an existing app, or a totally new app to be tested and packaged. The requested application is automatically assessed for compatibility across multiple target environments and multiple virtualization formats to determine best fit. Mobile apps are tested for both device and OS compatibility. Planning phase only needs to deal with exceptions because packaging standards and best practices are codified enabling many of the packaging tasks to be automated. If there are no exceptions, the application is automatically packaged and handed off to the deployment system for automatic promotion to the test and production environments. Simultaneously, the application is published to the enterprise app store for immediate access by end users. Feedback on deployment success/failure is used to proactively and continually improve service quality. Results The benefits of reaching Level 4 are many. Continual rationalization of applications keeps the portfolio ready for transition and reduces infrastructure and support costs as well as the number of applications to package. IT dramatically shrinks the time from request for a new application to delivery, and reduces costs through increased efficiency and informed demand planning. IT also aligns more closely with the business in that IT no longer has to wait for the business to tell IT what it needs. Instead, IT can proactively make application recommendations to line of business owners on applications that may be right for them. In addition, IT can now effectively manage SLAs and accurately predict the time to roll out new applications. Operational Efficency and Service Quality Reduces the manual effort in delivering new or updated applications significantly and simplifies their maintenance. Using AdminStudio imposes a discipline on software rollout that improves the user experience. -IT Professional State & Local Government Homogenous Environment Complexity Heterogenous Maturity and Business Value Change Ready Level 4 Efficient Delivery Level 3 Standard Level 2 Basic Packaging Level 1 Application lifecycle processes linked by Flexera ID Automated workflows and platform APIs Applications published to enterprise app store Self-service delivery of applications to end users Automated repackaging and application virtualization conversion Client management systems integration Packaging workflow templates Service Level Agreement reporting ISO Software Tagging Packaging templates Application conflict testing Package validation and quality testing Assess and convert packages for application virtualization Repackage applications Customize installations with transforms Comprehensive assessments of: Application & Session Virtualization, VDI New Desktop, Server, and Mobile Operating Systems Mobile Application Risks Figure 3: Flexera Software Application Readiness Solution Identify 7

8 What s more, IT increases end-user productivity and satisfaction by empowering users with self-service access to applications. And that s not all. IT future proofs the application portfolio in that it can quickly add new applications and take on new technologies such as mobile devices, enabling the enterprise to maintain a competitive edge. Supporting Technology As Figure 3 illustrates, Flexera Software provides technology that supports you through all four levels of the Application Readiness Maturity Model. You can easily and incrementally add components of the technology as you mature your process. The components integrate right out of the box. Field Proven Flexera Software solutions are helping customers move up in Application Readiness maturity. Consequently, they are realizing substantial benefits as indicated by the results of Flexera Software customer surveys conducted by TechValidate. AdminStudio Suite powers an enterprise s daily Application Readiness process for inventory, rationalization, packaging, and compatibility testing of physical, virtual, and mobile applications, ensuring faster service delivery and predictable deployment. Automation, integration with leading software distribution tools, and workflow capabilities help companies streamline day-to-day application packaging operations and reduce the time and cost of mobile application deployment, Windows migrations and application virtualization. Application Readiness Streamlines Application Delivery and Improves Service Quality What advantages has AdminStudio Suite given your application team? Increase Efficiency and Improve Service Quality with an Enterprise App Store What is the biggest benefit have you experienced from using App Portal? Increased operational efficiency 42% Improved service quality Ot her Reduced costs Decreased risk 4% 5% Source: Survey of 100 users of Flexera Software Flexera Software App Portal Workflow Manager. A Web-based process management solution that gives IT total control over software packaging, application virtualization, mobile application management and general desktop management processes end to end. With Workflow Manager, enterprises can use a specialized, request process that automates the collection of requirements and initiates the Application Readiness process, standardizes best-practices and speeds their execution, thereby cutting costs and increasing IT efficiency. App Portal. Helps IT organizations increase customer satisfaction by providing a self-service enterprise app store to deliver software to business users faster while reducing the cost of service delivery and gaining visibility across software assets, maintaining accurate up-to-date license compliance records, and automating the software request and fulfillment process. AdminStudio automatically publishes newly deployed applications to the App Portal enterprise app store. 25% 24% Streamlined day-to-day application delivery Fewer resources required to complete projects Improved agility, respond quickly to business needs Reduced support costs due to fewer compatablity issues 29% 32% 41% 62% Flexera Software has gained a vast amount of experience through working with its customers, partners, and industry experts in the area of Application Readiness. The company leverages this experience through professional services offerings to help customers to re-architect their Application Readiness processes and adopt best practices that enable them to move up in Application Readiness maturity and maximize the value of their investments. Improved quality of service to the business 62% Source: Survey of 253 users of Flexera Software Application Readiness 8

9 Conclusion Maintaining Application Readiness in today s complex and continually evolving technology environment is challenging, but essential to enabling ongoing business innovation. You have to be prepared for change and to provide line of business owners with the applications they need, when they need them, and on the devices they choose. And you have to ensure that your enterprise has the latest technology at its disposal to maintain its competitive edge. For More Information For more information, visit the Flexera Software Application Readiness page. To learn more about maturing your Application Readiness process, contact a Flexera Software representative. Flexera Software provides a full selection of professional services to help you identify your maturity level and outline a path to increased maturity. By achieving a Change Ready level of maturity in the Application Readiness process outlined in this paper, you can meet the challenge. As your organization continues to improve and evolve, you ll accelerate service delivery. You ll drive down costs. You ll keep your enterprise positioned at the forefront of technology. And you ll add business value every step of the way. 9

10 Flexera Software LLC (Global Headquarters): United Kingdom (Europe, Middle East Headquarters): Australia (Asia, Pacific Headquarters): For more office locations visit: Copyright 2015 Flexera Software LLC. All other brand and product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. AS_WP_Maturity_July15