Chapter 2. Introduction to containers and orchestration with Kubernetes 9
2.1.2  Cloud adoption
The initial forays for most early adopters were focused on the easy things. Moving basic 
applications to cloud infrastructure to cut costs and building new applications in the cloud to 
speed innovation. However, to date only approximately 10 - 20% of applications that are 
moved to the cloud. The next 80% of the cloud opportunity focuses on shifting business 
applications to the cloud and optimizing everything from supply chains to sales transactions. 
To address that opportunity, companies must move and manage data, services, and 
workflows across multiple clouds (companies are running 5 - 16 cloud vendors). This issue is 
challenging for them because it is largely a manual process, with major security implications 
and inconsistent cloud management and automation services.
2.1.3  Why is hybrid cloud so important
A one-cloud-fits-all approach does not work, Companies are choosing multiple cloud 
providers and clouds (public, private, software-as-a-service, and so on) to best meet their 
needs. They also are integrating those clouds with existing IT to get more value. 
The result is a hybrid approach to a multicloud environment. It is a mix of public clouds to 
quickly develop and deploy applications, private clouds to maintain the highest levels of 
security and availability for business-critical data and processes, and in many cases 
traditional on-premises IT.
2.1.4  Application modernization journey for a cloud-centric business 
transformation
The journey to the cloud starts with application modernization. On average, only 20% of 
applications in an environment were moved to the cloud. Application modernization is a 
strategy for helping companies to move aging application estates to the cloud. 
Business pressures demand faster time to market, robust workload mobility to allow quick 
migrations to the cloud, which improves operational efficiency, elasticity, and cost reductions. 
Applications must be adapted and ported to the cloud. Cloud-native technologies, such as 
containers, Kubernetes, and microservices, simplify this journey. How much time do you need 
to rewrite the entire portfolio of applications? Of course, it is a lot; therefore, a gradual 
application modernization is inevitable. 
Modernizing your applications results in the following immediate benefits:
/SM590000Accelerate digital transformation. New applications quickly match the business 
requirements.
/SM590000Improve developer productivity. Application containerization enables self-service for 
developers.
/SM590000Improve operational efficiency and standardization. CI/CD practices of continuous 
integration and continuous delivery to take advantage of the DevOps enablement culture.
An application modernization aligns with the hybrid nature of cloud adoption by large 
enterprises. It fully supports multicloud deployments that can span private, on-premises 
clouds and various public clouds by using standard Kubernetes-based container 
orchestration platforms, such as Red Hat OpenShift. For more information, see 2.5, 
“Enterprise Kubernetes: Red Hat OpenShift” on page 31.