Being a true cloud native means not getting locked in

One of the world’s largest furniture retailers had tons of happy customers, locations around the world, and widespread name recognition, but what it did not have was software that could scale. The company was proud of its multi-decade heritage but was burdened by software that felt almost as old.

The retailer knew that it could improve the customer experience it provided online, but it was hindered by slow development cycles, inconsistent environments, and outdated methodologies. The company engaged Capgemini to transform its e-commerce platform and shift to a DevOps way of working. By creating new APIs for sales and commerce functions linking legacy code to modern cloud systems, the retailer was able to accelerate development and testing time, and pave the way for an agile way of working – and a better online experience for its customers. This process, called containerization, was made possible thanks to the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, a hybrid cloud Kubernetes platform, which is designed to deliver applications faster.

This is just one of the ways that Capgemini helps clients embrace their digital potential and enable cloud-native transformation by partnering with Red Hat, a leading provider of open source enterprise software solutions for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Born-in-the-cloud applications help companies realize their digital potential, giving them the power to respond more rapidly to market changes so they can innovate quickly, continuously, and with less risk. Organizations across a variety of industries are moving to adopt cloud native to drive greater competitive advantage, and we see a lot of demand for open source solutions as more companies seek to avoid vendor lock-in and embrace hybrid and multi-cloud environments in their drive to become more digital.

Because of this, Capgemini and Red Hat have strengthened their relationship, with Capgemini becoming a Red Hat APEX partner, only one of a select number of companies to achieve Red Hat’s highest tier of partnership in North America. While Kubernetes and Docker container technologies are a great starting point, Red Hat OpenShift provides enterprise-level features and support.

The knowledge and experience of our industry and tech teams, combined with Red Hat’s open source solutions, gives our clients the tools to embrace cloud native and become truly digital organizations.

Getting started

No longer restricted to a small set of industry disruptors, cloud native is transforming organizations across industries. Whatever the level of maturity, we work with our clients to help them take maximum advantage of PaaS. Here are some of the most common recommendations we have for our clients:

• Replatforming: Replatforming is often the first step for companies that know they need to enable digital transformation and become more agile. Rather than relying on the traditional approach of rewrite, replace, and refactor, Capgemini’s REPlatforming-in-a-Box solution, using Red Hat OpenShift, helps you leverage existing investments to accelerate replatforming to cloud. Clients see benefits quickly and at little cost, and it isn’t uncommon to redeploy an existing app in as little as four weeks.
• Leveraging pre-existing solutions and components: Cloud native is all about speed, and what better way to accelerate than by not building entirely from scratch? Capgemini’s Digital Cloud Platform is an app-development engine and accelerator that leverages a library of proven business software components and exposed APIs to help organizations build and deploy born-in-the-cloud applications in around half the time. Red Hat OpenShift ensures that there’s no vendor lock-in.
• Taking advantage of managed services: Given that cloud-native helps solidify IT’s role as a driver of business value, we help clients continue to increase IT’s role in contributing to the bottom line by taking over management of their underlying infrastructure through Red Hat OpenShift.
• Using pre-built solutions, such as Digital Worker Management: We also partner with clients to deliver industry-specific cloud-native solutions such as Digital Worker Management, which collects data from wearable devices and leverages Red Hat technology. This helps improve the safety of employees with alerts and notifications, and also helps increase productivity by capturing and tracking time spent on work orders and travel.

Delivering flexibility and breakthrough efficiency, cloud-native transformation is critical for organizations to stay ahead in an increasingly digital world. That’s why Capgemini and Red Hat are working together to make it a reality for businesses around the world. If cloud native is your destination, we’re the team to get you there.

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Visit our website to learn more about Capgemini’s partnership with Red Hat or contact me to discuss your goals.

Ashok Bajaj

Expert in Customer Experience

I advise my clients in cost-effective approaches for digital transformation through innovative use of corporate information and technology.
Digital Product Manager – Created digital strategy for $8B business to produce a 400% Return On Investment through Digital Twin, Virtual Power Plant & Digital Thread products from conception through operations of assets. Delivered 1st in industry Predix-based platform.
Customer Experience Leader – Created engageDrilling & shopDrilling Predix-based products that enabled 1000+ weeks of productivity for Drillings customers, generated $30M dollars of eOrders and $7M y-o-y internal productivity. Enabled first in industry BoP Rental business model.
Knowledge Solutions Leader – Launched Industrial Internet for $3B business, enabled $8M y-o-y productivity & created $6M incremental revenue through additional contractual services agreements delivering remote monitoring software & analytics to drive zero unplanned downtime. Led cross-functional RM&D software & analytics group across businesses.
Services Solutions Leader – Involved in the development of new business models for healthcare diagnostic imaging business through asset performance management solutions that enabled 80% equipment service agreements & drove $30M y-o-y productivity.
Services Architect – Developed mobile digital platform for 9000+ field engineers, 5000+ online engineers and 1000+ customers globally, that enabled internal productivity of $15M y-o-y. Developer – Developed the janus.com in collaboration with 50 global teammates & 30-member client team.