Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024.  Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Five Enterprise Hybrid IT Trends in 2024

By Renée Lawrence, Vice President, Global Marketing & Product at Evocative

The technology trends we witnessed in 2023 have challenged our perception of the future of IT infrastructure. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have created the need to further advance how we manage exponentially increasing data workloads. In recent years, many companies have turned to the public cloud to achieve a faster time to market. However, rising costs, increasing data workloads, and security risks associated with the public cloud have led to trends such as cloud repatriation, cloud adjacency, and the rise of bare metal. In 2024, the industry will see the continued growth of hybrid IT as the favored model to optimize IT infrastructure performance.

Prediction 1: Cloud Repatriation Continues

In response to unpredictable costs and other challenges with the public cloud, companies are increasingly moving from cloud to lower their total cost of ownership (TCO). Enterprises with consistent and large workloads often benefit from colocation options built into their workload strategy because of the lower TCO that this approach drives in addition to the often more predictable and manageable cost model. In 2023, an influx of cloud native companies announced a move away from public cloud providers, citing higher, unpredictable costs and unrealized gains. We will continue to see more examples of cloud repatriation through 2024.

Prediction 2: The Rise of Cloud Adjacent Infrastructure

A cloud adjacent environment is just that - colocation and on-premises deployments placed near the cloud providers. Aligning workload requirements to the desired performance, scalability, and security at a lower effective cost, cloud adjacency pairs cost savings with efficient connectivity, higher performance, and lower latency. In many cases, this includes a tailor-made combination of cloud and colocation to get the best of both. We expect cloud adjacency, often deployed in conjunction with hybrid IT and other trends we list here, to change the way the industry plans infrastructure development in 2024.

Prediction 3: Bare Metal Resurgence

Bare metal is making a comeback in a big way for its cost and performance advantages. For enterprises seeking the cost predictability, high performance, and enhanced security of colocation with the flexibility and scale of the cloud, bare metal is the ideal solution. It provides users with the flexibility to choose their software, experience greater control with hardware-level access, improve security, and achieve more predictable costs. New enterprise-grade bare metal solutions are on the rise, including our own Evocative Metal, and are poised to make a substantial impact on the industry in 2024.

Prediction 4: AI will Change the Data Center Landscape

By now, many of us have been exposed to some of the advanced AI and ML technologies in our workplaces and everyday lives, but not everyone understands that those technologies require a supporting data center infrastructure to thrive. AI applications require high-density compute capabilities, which can place a strain on compute capacity, cooling, and power in the data center. Some colocation facilities are designed with advanced power and cooling to accommodate new AI applications, and many more will need to make significant investments to prepare for the growing demands of AI expected in the coming years. Going forward, as the breadth of AI technologies and applications expand, data center facilities must grow and operate more efficiently to accommodate these increasing resource requirements.

Prediction 5: Sustainability at the Forefront

Many enterprises have far-reaching sustainability missions which demand attention in the coming years. Some of these sustainability measures are costly and time-intensive to implement. To address this, data center operators are investing in ESG initiatives to help clients better manage rising energy costs while contributing to a better environment. IT infrastructure providers, especially those located in populated areas, aim to be good neighbors in their respective communities. Sustainability planning will be a necessity, not as a "nice to have" objective, in 2024 and beyond.

Conclusion

The digital infrastructure industry is facing a period of tremendous change marked by transformative technologies and the requirement to contain unpredictable costs. Enterprises will need to embrace the ongoing shift to hybrid IT and should expect to continuously re-evaluate their IT infrastructure to ensure workloads are being optimally managed. Assessing individual workloads for cost, security, control, and edge delivery and placing each in the environment that best fits the need will help prepare companies for the next generation of technologies and applications. Many organizations won't know where to start. They can leverage the digital infrastructure providers like Evocative to plan their hybrid IT strategies with a portfolio of enterprise colocation, network, and bare metal solutions.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Renée Lawrence, Vice President, Global Marketing & Product

Renée Lawrence is Vice President, Global Marketing and Product at Evocative. She is responsible for Evocative's brand strategy, product management and marketing, and corporate communications. Renée is a technology executive with extensive experience in data center operations, IT infrastructure, managed services, product lifecycle management and global channel development.

Prior to joining Evocative, Renée held senior marketing, product, operations and global alliance roles with EMC Corporation, VCE, Savvis (now Lumen), Exodus Communications and GlobalCenter. Renée holds an MBA from the University of San Diego, a BA from the University of California, San Diego, and has studied strategic marketing management at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.