Kyndryl’s Bridge and Vital: Helping Customers Address Two Forms of Technological Complexity

When it comes to business computing, “complexity” is often called out as a specific issue. However, it is more accurate to view complexity as a condition which can worsen a variety of challenges, a point that is especially true when it comes to enterprises due to the scale of their IT infrastructures.

Two of the most problematic issues large companies face are what might be called operational complexity which impacts the effective management and performance of IT assets, and design/development complexity which arises when IT assets and applications are aligned and integrated with core business processes.

The recent announcements of Kyndryl Bridge and Kyndryl Vital offer a valuable opportunity to consider these points.

The impact of complexity on operations and development

How exactly can complexity impact enterprise IT operations and development processes? In the former case, consider the sheer size and range of usually heterogeneous IT assets that are managed and maintained by large-scale businesses. Those inherent challenges are multiplied in the cases of multi-national companies with offices and data centers in often geographically distant locations. Then add in relatively recent and still evolving issues, including engagements with cloud service providers (CSPs), edge-of-network deployments, and initiatives using advanced analytics or artificial intelligence (AI) to improve business outcomes and efficiency.

How about the relationship of complexity in development and design projects? Those processes share many of the same size and range challenges as enterprise operations, with technical experts, like designers and developers, in often sizable teams spread across multiple locations. The age and scope of applications and processes can also add headaches, increasing the importance of and time required for project testing and oversight. Finally, many companies are investigating or implementing digital modernization projects, including cloud-native development solutions. Ensuring that those efforts successfully mesh with existing processes must stay top of mind.

Overall, enterprises are wise to assume that complexities will almost inevitably occur in IT operations and development projects. In essence, planning for the worst is a necessary step toward achieving the best.

Kyndryl Bridge and Kyndryl Vital

How is Kyndryl focusing on and addressing these issues? The company recently announced:

• Kyndryl Bridge – According to the company, Kyndryl Bridge is a new open integration platform designed to provide customers real-time insights into complex IT estates and control over customizing mission-critical operations. It leverages decades of expertise, operational data patterns, and IP that Kyndryl has amassed to generate actionable insights to help customers improve and accelerate AI-powered analytics efforts and achieve their business objectives. By integrating and connecting the myriad, complex management and process tools that enterprises use, Kyndryl Bridge also helps companies accelerate business initiatives, including digital modernization. Plus, the practical management and process improvements enabled by Kyndryl Bridge can help enterprises successfully cope with IT skills shortages.
• Kyndryl Vital – Described as a “designer-led, open and collaborative co-creation experience,” Kyndryl Vital was created to emphasize “human-centered design” when developing business solutions, workflows, and processes. This is achieved by integrating data resources with a deep understanding of people’s needs and behavior. Working side-by-side, clients, partner representatives, and Kyndryl’s technical experts can use the Vital platform to help ensure that new and improved solutions creatively meet customers’ current goals and also support their future-focused plans. The company noted that Kyndryl Vital teams are currently located in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, and Spain. The company plans to expand Kyndryl Vital in several more countries by the end of the year.

Final analysis

How singular are Kyndryl Bridge and Kyndryl Vital, and how well is the company positioned to compete in these areas?

Some might say that Kyndryl is entering an already crowded field. After all, system and storage vendors, ISVs, CSPs and other parties offer business customers a wide range of solutions and services for optimizing the management of IT assets and infrastructures. Many others offer platforms, tools, services and solutions for optimizing application design and development processes, including those focusing on digital modernization.

However, Kyndryl’s experience in these areas is considerably broader and deeper than many other vendors can offer. As the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider, Kyndryl regularly deals with virtually all of the hardware and software platforms common in enterprises, and also has expertise in numerous verticals, core business processes and global and regional markets. The same can be said for design and development processes and projects which play key roles in the IT and business strategy development efforts of its enterprise clients.

Those are crucial points considering the heterogeneous jumble of solutions that populate most corporate data centers, and the fact that how technology is used to support business can vary significantly depending on the industries, markets, and locales involved. Being deeply familiar with and able to successfully work across and support multiple platforms, technologies and business scenarios is a “must-have” for enterprise customers, not a “nice to have.”

It is also worth noting how Kyndryl Bridge and Kyndryl Vital support the strategy and goals the company espoused after it was spun off from IBM last November. Since then, it has charted a clear path as an independent organization, including inking agreements to create new offerings with strategic partners. Many of those efforts, such as the soon-to-be-announced mainframe-related services and solutions that Kyndryl is developing with Microsoft, would have been difficult or impossible when it was part of IBM.

Overall, Kyndryl Bridge and Kyndryl Vital offer evidence that the company is continuing to progress and evolve successfully. Both should be of interest to Kyndryl’s myriad customers and are also likely to gain the close attention of enterprises across the globe.