Gartner Identifies 6 Key Trends Impacting I&O in 2025

LAS VEGAS — Gartner has identified six key trends that will significantly impact infrastructure and operations (I&O) in the year ahead.

Jeffrey Hewitt, vice president analyst at Gartner, presented the findings during the 2024 Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference, this week. “When I think about what infrastructure and operations can do to be very valuable, there’s a lot of things we do in general in I&O, but one thing is to innovate,” he said. “Then I break down innovation, and I say, ‘What are a couple of things that would help you innovate where you need to innovate?’ “

The two factors we can do to innovate, he said, are to think differently and get out ahead of things.

It’s unlikely all the following trends will directly impact your organization. “But these are the six trends that we in Gartner have defined as bubbling up for infrastructure and operations,” Hewitt said.

Here are the top trends Gartner sees impacting I&O leaders in 2025, including their upsides and downsides, as well as recommendations if you encounter these trends in your organization:

Trend No. 1: Revirtualization/Devirtualization

What are revirtualization and devirtualization? “Revirtualization refers to changing actual virtual choices and involves multiple options,” Hewitt said. “Devirtualization is a subtrend that, while not predominant, involves a return to bare metal to avoid the costs of virtualization.”

Related:Preparing I&O for an AI-Augmented Future

When Hewitt asked the audience how many of them were disrupted by the recent acquisition of VMware by Broadcomhands shot up.

A lot of organizations are exploring what they can do about this disruption. “When you look at the market share in terms of revenues of just virtualization by Broadcom VMware, they own 97% of a $5.2 billion market worldwide in revenues,” Hewitt said. “So yes, they’ve been a monopoly in this space. But the issue here is people are trying to look for alternatives … [opening] the door for people to explore, what are the alternatives?”

Hewitt outlined both the upsides and downsides to revirtualization/devirtualization:

Hewitt recommends that I&O leaders:

Trend No. 2: Security Behavior and Culture Programs

Hewitt defined security behavior and culture programs (SBCPs) as “enterprise-wide approaches to minimize cybersecurity incidents associated with employee behavior.” Its goal is to change behavior.

Related:Gartner Reveals 6 Trends That Will Impact Infrastructure and Operations in 2024

“We have to create this culture of security so that everybody understands you get that message, text, email — don’t click on that link, don’t do it,” he said. The problem, however, is that the sophistication and variety of attacks are increasing thanks to AI, so security programs must evolve to address behavior and culture to optimize their effectiveness.

Hewitt outlined both the upsides and downsides of security behavior and culture programs:

Hewitt recommends that I&O leaders:

Trend No. 3: Cyberstorage

Cyberstorage solutions, according to Hewitt, leverage a data harbor consisting of fragmented data distributed across multiple storage locations. This fragmented data can be reassembled on demand.

“For cyberstorage to be successful, I&O leaders should identify the risks of costly and disruptive storage threats, combined with increasing regulatory and insurance expenses, to build a business case for cyberstorage adoption,” he said.

Hewitt outlined both the upsides and downsides of cyberstorage:

Hewitt recommends that I&O leaders:

Trend No. 4: Liquid-Cooled Infrastructure

“Liquid cooling is coming. It’s already been here, but there are new forms,” Hewitt said, “and there are three types” — rear-door heat exchange, immersion, and direct-to-chip.

“Liquid cooling has evolved to move from cooling the broader data center environment to getting closer and even within the infrastructure,” he said. “Liquid-cooled infrastructure remains niche today in terms of use cases but will become more predominant as next generations of GPUs and CPUs increase in power consumption and heat production.”

The liquid-cooled infrastructure you’ll most likely encounter over the next year and beyond will be direct-to-chip cooling because immersion isn’t sufficient for the next generations of AI CPUs and GPUs, according to Hewitt.

Hewitt outlined both the upsides and downsides of liquid-cooled infrastructure:

Hewitt recommends that I&O leaders:

Trend No. 5: Intelligent Applications

“[Intelligent applications] are applications that can actually make decisions for themselves,” said Hewitt, who shared a slide on the essence of intelligent applications:

Intelligent applications reduce required intervention and interactions on the part of I&O and optimize processes and utilization while reducing resource overhead.

Hewitt outlined both the upsides and downsides of intelligent applications:

Hewitt recommends that I&O leaders:

Trend No. 6: Optimal Infrastructure

Optimal infrastructure is achieved when I&O teams prioritize selecting the best-fit infrastructure for each use case across various deployment styles. Taking a business-based approach enables executives outside of IT to understand infrastructure decisions in terms that align with their strategic priorities.

“These choices are ultimately aligned with platform engineering adoption,” Hewitt said. “They allow I&O to align infrastructure choices with the business objectives of the overall organization. They also facilitate the support and approval of business unit leaders and C-level executives.”

Hewitt outlined both the upsides and downsides of optimal infrastructure:

Hewitt recommends that I&O leaders:

Action Plan for I&O Leaders

Identify which trends are likely to impact your organization and assess whether adopting specific solutions will enhance their effectiveness, he said. Focus on the trends you aim to leverage and collaborate with HR to develop the necessary career paths and training programs to adapt effectively.

“You may not encounter all these [trends]but for those of you who say, ‘Yeah, this can impact our organization,’ we want you to be prepared,” Hewitt said.