While the vast majority of IT decision-makers believe that modernized technology systems have become critical, what are considered conventional or legacy technologies account for most of today’s apps, infrastructure and workplace tools, according to a recent survey from Avanade. The resulting report, “IT Modernization: Critical to Digital Transformation,” indicates that organizations risk losing out on long-term growth potential if they fail to modernize IT. However, in many cases, security challenges stand in the way. On the positive side, most companies have at least started to implement approaches such as DevOps and agile into their app development and software engineering initiatives. They’re also expected to ramp up their deployment of intelligent and cognitive automation and robotic process automation in order to remain relevant and competitive. “If organizations don’t modernize their IT systems—and, just as importantly, the IT approaches used alongside these systems—they will not be able to address the emerging needs of the digital business,” according to the report. “The digital business will need IT systems and approaches that can, for example, handle a multichannel digital world that must receive, interpret and interact with data from wearables, IoT [internet of things] and AI [artificial intelligence].” An estimated 800 global IT decision-makers took part in the research, which was conducted by Vanson Bourne.