How to modernise with IBM systems you already run on

Most large organisations and businesses today are caught between two truths. One, the IBM systems that have run the business for years are still trusted, and they still work. Two, the pressure to modernise on top of them – to adopt AI, reduce operating cost, meet stricter compliance – has never been higher.

The market’s usual advice is to start over, but we know there’s a better, smarter way to approach business transformation.

The question we hear most

“How do we modernise what we have, without breaking what runs the business?”

This is a question that comes up in almost every conversation we have with senior IT and operations leaders.

IBM middleware (WebSphere Application Server, App Connect Enterprise, MQ) has become the dependable backbone of so many businesses’ infrastructures. The same goes for those moving trade data, who depend on IBM Sterling, and IBM API Connect for those exposing services to partners and customers. The reality is that these platforms work, and they are trusted.

However, another reality is that businesses today are increasingly being pressured to extract and achieve more from their systems. AI is consistently on the board agenda. Operating costs are under intense scrutiny. Customers expect a seamless experience. IT teams are grappling to find the solution that answers it all.

For many years, the answer to these kinds of problems has traditionally been to invest in business transformation. Essentially, to replace existing systems with better, upgraded solutions.

For many organisations and businesses, though, undergoing this transformation is expensive, slow, and puts the risk on the exact systems they cannot afford to lose.

So they get stuck. Standing still feels like falling behind, whilst moving feels like gambling the core of the business.

A different starting point

At DeeperThanBlue, we’ve come to the realisation that the question itself is the wrong way round.

The IBM estate a customer already runs is not technical debt to apologise for. It is a working foundation – paid for, proven and central to how the business operates.

The real job is to modernise that foundation where it needs modernising, and to connect it so it can do more. Not to tear it down and start again.

That’s what we mean when we say Build on What Works. And it is the principle behind how DeeperThanBlue has approached IBM modernisation for years.

The risks of doing nothing are bigger than they look

Sensible modernisation does not mean replacement, but it also does not mean standing still. The risks of clinging to legacy environments build up quickly:

• End of support: Patches stop. Bug fixes stop. Vendor help disappears. Critical systems running unsupported are an open door for the wrong person on the wrong day.
• SLAs and uptime: Legacy platforms were not designed for today’s scale, speed and complexity. Meeting service levels gets harder every year.
• Security and compliance: Unpatched vulnerabilities and increasingly strict regulation are a poor combination. Audits get harder, not easier.
• Cost: Ageing IBM platforms often carry spiralling licence costs, bloated infrastructure and mounting support overheads. The cost of “doing nothing” quickly outweighs the investment in modernising.

None of this is news to the IT teams and leaders we talk to. The question is not whether to act, but how to act without taking on more risk in the process.

What sensible modernisation *actually* looks like

At DeeperThanBlue, we work on the layers that sit on top of the IBM estate: the applications, the infrastructure they run on, the AI capabilities that customers want to add on top.

Specifically, that means:

• Bringing IBM middleware estates up to current versions and architectures, including modernisation of WebSphere, App Connect and MQ.
• Moving IBM workloads into containerised, cloud-native environments – Kubernetes, Red Hat OpenShift, hybrid cloud – where they can scale and be maintained efficiently.
• Building observability across applications, infrastructure and integrations using IBM Instana and the IBM AIOps stack, so problems are caught before they reach customers.
• Adopting AI on the IBM platform responsibly, including watsonx and IBM Granite, on a foundation customers already trust.
• Planning structured paths through end of support, before urgency forces a worse decision.

This is specialist IBM work, done by IBM specialists. DeeperThanBlue is an IBM Silver Partner with IBM Champions on the team and decades of IBM-focused delivery behind us. When we work with a business’s critical systems, we genuinely understand them and know them inside out.

Modernisation on top only works if the integration underneath does too

This is the part that most modernisation conversations skip on: the application and infrastructure work DeeperThanBlue does on top of the IBM estate only delivers if the integration layer underneath is keeping up, too.

New applications need clean data. New AI capabilities need real-time inputs. New customer experiences need partner systems to respond at speed. None of that happens unless the integration estate is moving forward at the same time.

That’s why DeeperThanBlue and Coliance work together for customers who need both layers handled.

While we work on modernisation, Coliance leads on integration. As a long-standing IBM Gold Partner, Coliance has IBM Champions on their team and countless complex integration projects behind them. Their work covers IBM Sterling, B2B and supply-chain connectivity, hybrid integration across on-premise and multiple clouds, and managed integration services that take the operational load off the customer.

When we work together, the two layers move forward as one, streamlined project towards effective business transformation.

The modernisation decisions we make on top get made with knowledge of what is happening underneath, and same goes for the other way round. The customer is not the integration point between their suppliers, and there is no gap in the middle of a project for the work to fall through.

This is what Build on What Works means in practice: one team across both halves of the job, building on the foundation the customer already has, with the integration estate scaling alongside the modernisation rather than catching up afterwards.

What this approach looks like, by the numbers

The customer-outcome numbers from Forrester and IDC research on IBM integration and IBM Sterling are clear on the impact of sensible modernisation:

• 40% reduction in application downtime through IBM integration consolidation.
• 45% faster onboarding of new trading partners with IBM Sterling.
• 99% less unplanned downtime on managed B2B integration platforms.

These are not partner-channel statistics. They are customer outcomes – the things a senior leader running on IBM would actually justify modernisation by.

Where to start

Modernisation does not have to mean ripping out what works. It starts with an honest look at the IBM estate as it is today: what needs to be improved, what’s working well already, and what ‘transformation’ should look like for your individual business, team, and needs.

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