FNTS 2022 Vision: Supporting Businesses Through IT Modernization and Service Delivery

As evolving technologies continue to support businesses around the globe in the reimagined workplace, FNTS looks forward to accelerating its growth and investments to best support organizations in meeting their strategic IT goals in 2022.

Cloud innovation, technology system modernization, cost optimization and providing exceptional service delivery will remain front and center as we work collaboratively with our partners and teams to solve challenges, create efficiencies and improve user experiences in your IT landscape.

Investing in Cloud and Mainframe Specializations

The rapid adoption of public cloud and multi-cloud operating models will continue to be drivers for businesses wanting to get out of owning and operating data centers. The need to place technology in the most suitable environment will result in cost, performance and growth benefits. FNTS is uniquely positioned to assist organizations in developing the right multi-cloud strategy to meet their business objectives and provide thought leadership related to mainframe modernization and cloud strategies. Because of this vision, we are working toward completing Advanced Specializations within Azure for Mainframe Modernization, Azure Virtual Desktop and Azure Services. These specializations reinforce FNTS’ expertise in designing, migrating and supporting Azure deployments for specific use-cases.

In regard to mainframe environments, organizations are faced with post-pandemic challenges of recruiting and hiring mainframe professionals. Companies are weighing the financial risks of buying new mainframes with the ease and simplification of utilizing hosted mainframe services. We anticipate more mainframe modernization from companies wanting to rehost and replatform, meaning they are seeking both mainframe hosting services and application rationalization to migrate workloads from the mainframe to hyper-scale cloud environments. Application rationalization and mobility will continue to drive FNTS’ offerings in 2022, whether it be mainframe application rationalization to the private FNTS Cloud, Azure or through the implementation of microservices and containerization.

Keeping an Eye on Emerging Technologies.

FNTS continues to seek service offerings that resonate with businesses to eliminate complexity in their environments and deliver new ways for them to create revenue. Emerging technologies that could disrupt markets in 2022 include:

• Edge computing will continue to drive cloud decisions due to the proliferation of BI and AI strategies. There is a need for data to be computed close to where it is hosted to overcome latency, bandwidth and security concerns.
• Containerization of applications will continue to be in high demand. FNTS is working to define its Container Management Service through Azure Kubernetes Service in 2022.
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning may get more tactical in the next few years, which is likely to make applying it more predictable and useful for organizations.
• SD-WAN, DevOps operating models and multi-cloud automation methods.

As the pace and complexity of security requirements continue to accelerate, both skill and diligence are necessary. Many of our clients have engaged our security team to tap into these skills, as well as keep from falling behind as new exploits surface. Managing and securing privileged credentials is one of the most pressing security challenges we're helping clients address with FNTS services.

Strategies for disaster recovery will continue to develop for the foreseeable future. The mobility of workloads to and from public and private clouds, as well as the ability to automate the recovery of workloads, will have increased importance. In 2022, we will develop and advance our storage, Backup-as-a-Service and Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service capabilities, including moving towards NVMe and Storage Class Memory, to help our customers manage data at scale. Exponential data growth requires technologies that can manage data easier, faster and more securely.

Evolving Partnerships Provide New Opportunities

FNTS values its partners and invests heavily in those relationships to deliver greater price and performance.

In the year ahead, we expect to expand our partnership with IBM by adding to their IBM Power VS Cloud capabilities with specific embedded solutions as it relates to encryption and crypto services for the IBM i platform. We also will continue the long-standing partnership we have had with the historic IBM GTS business unit, now called Kyndryl, by delivering Mainframe, IBM Power Systems and Cloud solutions.

Our Microsoft partnership also will evolve, with more activity occurring in mainframe modernization and Azure consumption. As we continue to go deeper into the Azure ecosystem, we’ll find additional ways to help clients leverage their Microsoft investment and bring new capabilities to their organizations.

Cyber Resilience has never been more important to companies, as they ensure they have the ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from cyber threats. This is driving significant advancements in data protection strategies. Our partnership with Palo Alto will bring a wider array of security options and new approaches to enterprises, reducing organizational risk profiles.

Improving the FNTS Customer Experience

The customer experience is important to FNTS. That’s why we have several initiatives underway to provide tools and self-service options to break down technology complexity in client operating environments:

• ServiceNow, our client service portal, will provide more enhancements and access to self-service and monitoring tools through a single-entry point for clients. An improved monitoring suite will also provide additional alerting options for client environments.
• Upgrades to the Azure Customer Portal through the deployment of ArrowSphere will provide greater visibility to public cloud clients.
• Advancements to our private cloud platform, the FNTS Cloud, will provide a highly secure cloud with unmatched price and performance. We are excited to launch the FNTS Cloud 2.0, in partnership with VMware, to improve upon our growth with added technical capabilities and self-provisioning options.
• Enhancements to mainframe batch monitoring and scheduling can help predict batch and scheduling issues. We are reviewing technologies that provide the predictive analytics necessary to meet this growing need.

FNTS continues to be a trusted adviser to businesses by helping them develop the right design and solution to meet their technical, security and budgetary objectives. Our ability to manage technologies across public, private and IBM technology clouds positions us to serve you at any stage of modernization or transformation. This past year was a great opportunity for us to improve our service value to businesses and expand the depth of our capabilities. We are excited to see what is possible in 2022.