Make The Right Application Modernization And Multicloud Managed Services Investments

Cognizant’s R&D spending on genAI and applications modernization and multicloud managed services is sizable. Capabilities. Cognizant possesses significant strength in managed applications services. Development, testing, and database migration are also above par, with cloud-native capabilities coming from prior acquisitions of Softvision and Devbridge. It has less relative scale in multicloud managed services than modernization services.

Forrester data shows that 75% of networking and telecom decision-makers say their organization is interested in using or increasing the usage of managed networking and telecom services. Managed services have evolved from supplemental to foundational services, making it essential to have IT partners in the ecosystem that can effectively deliver the managed services that customers require (see Figure 1).

Enterprise customers use application modernization and multicloud managed services providers in a variety of contexts, including multicloud managed services, modernization, software-as-a-service (SaaS) replacement, application rationalization and retirement, ongoing operations, and other tasks. In doing so, they engage with a variety of underlying contractual models, such as staff augmentation, managed services, and outcome-based scenarios including shared risks and rewards.

Responses were as follows: multicloud container platform on public clouds managed by the vendor (62%); managed container service on a public cloud (56%); multicloud container platform on public clouds managed by the user (50%); managed Kubernetes service from a public cloud provider (45%); Kubernetes-based platforms on bare metal on-premises or a private cloud (28%); and multicloud container platform on-premises (24%).

Financial Services And Insurance Cloud Adoption, 2026 This chart shows what FSI enterprise purchase influencers of cloud infrastructure and platforms are thinking about using as their primary cloud platform type. Thirty-nine percent are thinking public cloud, 34% are thinking internal private cloud, 26% are thinking hosted private cloud, and 1% don’t know. Source: Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2025.

Nearly three-quarters of ECM deployments use some form of cloud or managed service deployment model: 49% of respondents say they use private software-as-a-service (SaaS) or hosting services, while 25% use multitenant SaaS. Cloud benefits include scalability and stability, integration with other key enterprise applications, and a reduced risk of falling behind on upgrades and fixes. A quarter of decision-makers report that they still run ECM on-premises (see Figure 4).

In financial services, ICICI Bank uses Azure managed services for digital banking, data, and analytics, while in manufacturing, Godrej Consumer Products has modernized supply-chain, manufacturing, and analytics workloads on Azure. Hybrid is the enduring operating model.

Enterprises increasingly seek vendors that offer integrated AI services and sovereignty assurances, which are closely tied to the geographic distribution of hyperscaler zones and data center locations across the US (see Figure 4). GSIs are playing critical roles. Global systems integrators (GSIs) and managed service providers play a critical role in bridging skills gaps.

Figure 5 Most Enterprises With Mainframes Use Or Plan To Use Outsourcing And Managed Services This bar chart shows responses to the survey question, ‘For mainframe operations, how much outsourcing and managed services does your organization use?’