Cloud, data center, and Edge. These are three of the key technologies driving many enterprises today. How these technologies will evolve in the near future should be something to keep an eye on.
On one hand, there are these developments in technologies and processes that may change the way we work. On the other hand, there are real-world concerns currently going on such as geopolitical conflicts and economic uncertainty which may either hamper the aforementioned developments or force a shift in the way things are done, affecting the way we work in the process.
Research and consultancy firm Gartner pointed out that the foreseeable future will not be about grand visions but will be more about refocusing, retooling, and rethinking IT infrastructure which presents an opportunity to make positive changes that may be long overdue.
Gartner has identified four key trends that will determine how cloud, data center, and Edge will evolve in the years ahead.
1: Cloud teams will optimize and refactor cloud infrastructure
Many public cloud deployments have been set up in an ad hoc manner, thus are assembled hastily, and are poorly implemented. I&O teams have an opportunity this year to revisit these deployments and make necessary changes to transform them to be more efficient, resilient, and cost-effective.
There is also an opportunity to refactor cloud infrastructure but such efforts should focus on optimizing costs by eliminating redundant, overbuilt, or unused cloud infrastructure; building business resilience rather than service-level redundancy; using cloud infrastructure as a way to mitigate supply chain disruptions; and modernizing infrastructure.
2: New application architectures will demand new kinds of infrastructure
I&O teams constantly need to address new and growing demands with new types of infrastructure such as non-x86 architectures for specialized workloads, serverless edge architectures, and 5G mobile service. Thus, they must carefully evaluate alternative options, focusing on their ability to manage, integrate and transform amidst the constraints on time, talent, and resources.
3: Data center teams will adopt cloud principles on-premises
Data centers are shrinking as enterprises are migrating from owned facilities to platform-based colocation providers. Combined with the introduction of new as-a-service models for physical infrastructure, cloud-like service-centricity, and economic models may find their way onto on-premises infrastructure. Therefore, I&O professionals should focus on building cloud-native infrastructure within the data center; migrating workloads from owned facilities to co-location facilities or the edge; or embracing as-a-service models for physical infrastructure.
4: Successful organizations will make skills growth their highest priority
Lack of skills remains the biggest barrier to infrastructure modernization initiatives, with many organizations finding they cannot hire outside talent to fill these skills gaps. It is critical that IT organizations prioritize organic skills growth if they desire to see growth for their organizations. I&O leaders in particular must make operations skills growth their highest priority by encouraging them to take on new roles as site reliability engineers or subject matter expert consultants for developer teams and business units.