The pressure on digital architects has more than doubled since the outbreak of COVID-19, research from Couchbase shows. According to the survey of 450 digital architects across the USA, UK, France, and Germany, 48 percent are currently under high or extremely high pressure to deliver digital projects, compared to just 19 percent pre-pandemic.

Yet, despite this pressure, architects are still delivering results, with nearly half (48 percent) delivering digital projects uninterrupted by the pandemic.

Majority (86) percent of architects say COVID-19 has made it harder to get the right technology in place for digital transformation, while 38 percent say it has disrupted their plans to deliver digital projects.

Moreover, 61 percent said that past technology decisions had made completing digital transformation projects more difficult – in particular, cloud infrastructure (48 percent) and database (43 percent) decisions.

Only 13 percent of organizations are still in the planning phase of digital projects, compared to 22 percent in 2019 – indicating that, despite the challenges of the pandemic, nearly all organizations are committed to digital projects that are underway.

The research highlights the problem of over-relying on legacy databases. Despite most organizations believing relational databases do not have major potential to revolutionize digital transformation, 91 percent still rely on them – 31 percent heavily. Though this finding is lower than in 2019, organizations still face challenges with legacy databases; 61 percent of organizations that still rely on legacy databases say they make it harder to implement new digital projects.

Architects were also clear on where they believe the future lies. Respondents said that the cloud (identified by 68 percent) and Big Data (59 percent) have the most potential to revolutionize digital transformation – perhaps because both enable organizations to adapt to an increasingly online and decentralized world.

Respondents were also clear which approaches had been of significant help or indispensable in meeting their goals. These included: moving from on-premises databases to the cloud (identified by 65 percent); the flexibility to quickly change goals when needed (63 percent); and adopting technology that didn’t require investing in new skills (60 percent).