Three key characteristics of modernization are modernization capabilities, modernization outcomes, and a modernization platform. Modernization capabilities include enabling better data management for data science, AI, and ML, supporting development and deployment of data-driven applications, self-service Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics users, unifying management of data across distributed systems, handling an increase in data volume and the number of concurrent users, reducing data latency and increasing the frequency of updates. Modernization outcomes include gaining fuller value from the data stored and captured, automating decision-making, increasing efficiency and effectiveness, generating new business strategies and models using analytics, making faster decisions, strengthening relationships via data sharing, improving trust and data quality, increasing reuse and flexibility, reducing costs, providing authorized access to live data sets, consolidating data silos. A modernization platform is the key solution that solves the issues of consolidating unnecessary data silos and ensuring access to data without manual intervention or unauthorized access, with advantages including simplifying and accelerating access, discovering data relationships easier and faster, creating a logical layer for single point of access, unifying data governance, reducing unnecessary data movement. Modernized architecture often includes cloud migration from on-premises systems, hybrid multi-cloud architectures, distributed architectures, serverless architecture.