Perhaps the biggest impact of digital transformation has been how business has become incredibly app driven. Traditional businesses had a core of applications that underpinned key processes. This list of applications was rarely added to and changes to application functionality was regulated and happened on cycles with regularity of once or twice a year.

How things have changed. If you have an idea for a new process, project or business stream then you can almost guarantee you will find an app that will support that idea. If the app doesn't exist, getting it developed is also quick and cheap to do though not without risk.

When it comes to functionality, we expect our applications to meet changes in user demand and do so in days or weeks compared to the months or years we used to settle for. Even more demanding, is that acceptance of "maintenance downtime" during application function upgrades is quickly diminishing.

Until recent times public cloud and Software as a Service has been the catalyst for enabling businesses to adopt modern applications at pace. This certainly has a place, with productivity applications like office fitting the SaaS model perfectly. However, this rush to SaaS and Cloud based on reaction rather than strategic thinking is not always the best long-term move. With SaaS what seems free or cheap at first can become very expensive once you invest in it fully. Likewise, as you come to rely more heavily on any specific application, you may find that the SLAs (Security, uptime, performance) offered by the application provider may not meet the long-term needs of your business.

The good news is that with the newest wave of Intel powered servers such as those PRIMERGY and PRIMEQUEST from Fujitsu, it's possible to create an in-house platform that delivers public cloud benefits both in terms of functionality and total cost of ownership.

These servers are built for scalability, performance and automated management. The net effect is that IT departments that invest in this technology are able to build flexible platforms that support rapid application development and deployments, support highly virtualised environments, are more resilient with better uptime and reduce the time your IT team spend on operational management so that they can focus on things like delivering the apps that your business needs.

To find out more about how Fujitsu can help you build a platform for the needs of modern applications click here.