Earlier this week, Gartner’s internal conference in Sydney highlighted four key trends in cloud, data center and edge infrastructure.

Research and advisory firm Gartner hosted its own conference in Sydney this week IT infrastructure, operations and cloud strategies. During this two-day event, four key trends related to cloud, data center and edge infrastructure were mentioned.

Trend 1 – Cloud teams will optimize and restructure their infrastructure

Cloud usage is now almost universal, but too often it is still used in a hasty and ad hoc manner. I&O teams (infrastructure and operations) have the opportunity this year to strengthen the shaky cloud infrastructure and make it more efficient.

The main reason for these restructurings is financial. Cloud use must become more cost-effective. Unnecessary and poorly constructed clouds must be removed. The infrastructure is best suited for solving problems in the production chain and modernizing companies.

Trend 2 – App developers will demand new forms of infrastructure

I&O teams are constantly facing challenges to meet the need for new types of infrastructure: edge infrastructure for data intensive work, non-86x infrastructure for very specific tasks, serverless edge infrastructure or 5G services.

It is important for I&O teams to carefully evaluate alternatives. The focus is on the ability to manage, integrate and transform them in a limited time frame and with limited resources.

Trend 3 – Data centers will use their own cloud principles

Data centers are shrinking and shifting to multi-user provider platforms. In combination with new service models for the physical infrastructure, cloud-like on-site models can be created; both economical and service-oriented.

According to Gartner, data centers will be monitored much more from a cloud basis in the near future. I&O teams this year need to focus on cloud architecture in data centers to move operations from on-premises to multi-user or edge facilities. Another option is to use the physical infrastructure as an as-a-service model.

Trend 4 – Successful companies will prioritize skills development

A lack of skills remains the biggest obstacle to modernization initiatives. Many companies fail to attract the talent they need. IT companies cannot be successful if they don’t prioritize hiring people with the skills they are looking for.

Managers of I&O teams should make growing their own organization’s talent pool their number one goal. Team members should also be encouraged to take on diverse roles within development and business teams.