Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) Trends 2022

“I&O leaders need to drive change, not simply absorb it,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner.

The Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) teams are broadly responsible for the administration and management of technology, data, and information.

In recent years, their purpose shifted from solely delivering engineering and operations services to delivering products and services that help an organization drive its business strategy.

Here is a blog post that will help you learn if your organization is equipped with an I&O tech team that aids agile business needs and if it is ready to keep up with the latest trends brimming in 2022.

Let’s begin!

Top Trends in Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) 2022

1. Better Management of Data Proliferation

Data proliferation is an umbrella term for the huge amount of data and files stored by the government and businesses. The chunks of data gathered every day need massive space and hardware to be stored safely. And since all the structured and unstructured data continues to grow, it gets challenging to store it.

It not only occupies computer memory and leads to extra costs but also tends to slow down all the associated programs where this huge amount of data is stored.

Whether the data collected is valuable or junk, the I&O teams are required to store the data and provide its access across the organization.

However, the I&O leaders can help prioritize the retention of only the mandatory data. They can consult the chief data officer to work upon data retention policies that drive cost efficiency. The I&O teams can use the file analysis software for better data management.

2. Leverage Capabilities of Digital Natives

Digital natives possess an inherent advantage because they are native speakers of the digital age. And organizations that made public cloud and other digital capabilities a primary part of their business model from the beginning are known as digital native companies.

Gartner says, “There is an opportunity for traditional I&O organizations to leverage their digital-native counterparts that thrived during the pandemic to also produce highly agile, innovative, and competitive offerings themselves, or join those that can.”

The fact that by 2025, 70% of I&O leaders who ignore innovation will be marginalized to legacy system support only.

Therefore, now is the time to shift the non-digital native aspects of your organization to achieve greater agility and cost-efficiency. Also, more focus should be laid on enabling solutions that improve customer experience.

3. Cyber Security Automation

Data security continues to be a top priority for businesses. And thus organizations invest in the best cyber security solutions to ensure sensitive data is protected.

Thus, an increasing number of businesses are adopting AIOps solutions for prediction and remediation. Businesses can implement algorithms to monitor systems and identify patterns that cause security breaches. Cybersecurity automation with AIOps helps monitor and detect deviations in real-time.

If there’s an issue detected, the system can execute a set of automated defensive tactics to eliminate the threat before it can lead to serious damage.

4. Management Confluence

The number of management and monitoring tools is growing.

Thus, these management and monitoring tools, such as IT service management (ITMS), artificial intelligence operations (AIOps), and machine learning operations (MLOps), need to be brought together in a single, comprehensive tool to better drive business values and agility.

Integrating these tools is vital for the adoption of composable technologies, minimizing overall costs, and generating better ROI.

Composable business designs and infrastructure form the core of private and hybrid cloud solutions. Also, a comprehensive management tool will help 58% of high-composability enterprises build out integration capabilities for data, analytics, and applications, says the 2022 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey.

5. Prefer Business Acumen

There is a gap in the I&O outputs and business objectives, which prevents business leaders from devising potential innovations. Thus, businesses need to hire new employees with a more business-based mindset, instead of a strong technical background. This ensures that new hires are able to squeeze the maximum benefit out of particular technology implementation and help achieve overall organizational goals.

The I&O teams should identify the skills and requirements for a business-based mindset staff. Behavioral competencies over technical skills should be given preference during recruitments.

Key Takeaway

Here’s what the future of Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) technology looks like in 2022 and onwards:

a. It will have a roadmap for creating technologies that enable ‘anywhere operations’.
b. AIOps for IT operations and infrastructure integration with automation will be a significant consideration for the I&O teams.
c. Investments in building a modern core infrastructure to bridge the gap between digital and physical infrastructure will be on the rise.

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