Gartner: Key Trends Infrastructure and Operations for 2025

Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) executives are navigating a shifting landscape shaped by evolving technologies, security concerns, and changing business needs. The following trends highlight the key areas that will shape the future of I&O.

“These trends give the opportunity for I&O leaders to identify future skills requirements and seek insights to help meet implementation requirements,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, Vice President Analyst at Gartner. “They will provide the differentiation needed for enterprises to gain the optimal benefits from their I&O operations in 2025.”

Trend 1: Revirtualization and Devirtualization

Recent licensing changes in vendor-based solutions have prompted I&O teams to reassess their virtualization strategies. This has led some organizations to adopt public cloud, distributed cloud, or private cloud solutions, moving beyond simply switching hypervisors.

“I&O leaders must inventory all current virtualization implementations and any related interdependencies,” said Hewitt. “Evaluate alternative paths including hypervisors, hyperconvergence, distributed cloud, containerization, private cloud and devirtualization. Identify existing I&O skills and how those need to evolve to support top choices.”

Trend 2: Security Behavior and Culture Programs (SBCPs)

With the increasing sophistication and variety of cyberattacks, security programs are focusing on behaviour and culture to enhance their effectiveness. SBCPs take an enterprise-wide approach to reduce cybersecurity incidents linked to employee behaviour.

These programs improve employee adoption of security controls and reduce insecure behaviors, enabling I&O teams to optimize the use of cybersecurity resources.

Trend 3: Cyberstorage Solutions

Cyberstorage solutions utilize fragmented and distributed data stored across multiple locations, allowing data to be instantly reassembled when needed. These solutions can take the form of dedicated systems, platform-native services, or stand-alone products enhancing storage vendors with cyber protection features.

“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,” said Hewitt.

Trend 4: Liquid-Cooled Infrastructure

Liquid-cooled infrastructure is gaining attention for its ability to support next-generation chip densities and AI requirements. Techniques such as rear-door heat exchange, immersion, and direct-to-chip cooling are becoming critical to managing power consumption and heat production in advanced GPUs and CPUs.

“Liquid cooling has evolved to move from cooling the broader data centre environment to getting closer and even within the infrastructure,” said Hewitt. “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.”

Trend 5: Intelligent Applications

The rise of generative AI has paved the way for intelligent applications capable of adapting to user context and intent, reducing digital friction. These applications interoperate by leveraging external APIs and connected data, requiring less intervention from I&O teams while optimizing processes and resource utilization.

Trend 6: Optimal Infrastructure

Optimal infrastructure emphasizes selecting the best deployment styles for specific use cases, aligning infrastructure choices with business objectives. This approach ensures decisions are understandable to executives outside IT and supports platform engineering adoption.

“These choices are ultimately aligned with platform engineering adoption,” said Hewitt. “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.”