Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2025. Read them in this 17th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Pawel Hytry, CEO Spacelift
As 2025 approaches, a few tech trends point to a shift in the way
enterprises will approach infrastructure management and orchestration.
1. OpenTofu will supersede Terraform as enterprise choice for
Infrastructure as Code.
OpenTofu, the open
source alternative to Terraform, has rapidly evolved since its general
availability was announced by the Linux Foundation and CNCF in January of this
year. With nearly two million GitHub downloads and
widespread adoption, OpenTofu is now a major contender in the Infrastructure as
Code (IaC) space. This milestone is more than just numbers; it symbolizes a
growing acceptance of OpenTofu as an enterprise-ready solution. AWS, Cisco,
Oracle and Fidelity have already shifted major parts of their infrastructure
management to OpenTofu, and other enterprises looking for flexibility and
reduced vendor lock-in are flocking to OpenTofu as well. With dedicated
engineering resources from key players like Spacelift, OpenTofu is continuously
improving. Version 1.7 brought state encryption, 1.8 introduced early
evaluation, and 1.9 is coming soon with a much-requested feature: provider
iteration using for each. Additionally, this release includes the new -exclude
flag for plan and apply. With more exciting features on the roadmap, OpenTofu
is here to stay.
2. The future is hybrid.
Few companies are truly cloud native, with all of their
infrastructure cloud-based and all of their applications built from
ground up specifically to run in the cloud. The fact is hybrid infrastructure-a
blend of on-premises and cloud environments-is the reality for the majority of
enterprises today. And we're beginning to see hybrid embraced as the preferred
architecture, because it provides the best of both worlds. A hybrid cloud setup
allows companies to boost deployment velocity by allowing rapid development and
testing in the cloud, while stable, predictable applications run on-premises
for optimal performance and significant cost savings.
Hybrid architecture also offers flexibility for meeting security
and regulatory requirements, enabling companies to keep sensitive data on-prem
while scaling customer-facing applications in the cloud. The hybrid model's
adaptability makes it ideal for industries with strict compliance needs, such
as finance, government and healthcare.
However, managing hybrid environments is no small feat. Companies
increasingly rely on orchestration tools to unify cloud and on-prem systems,
streamlining operations and reducing complexity. Tools like Spacelift
facilitate orchestration by integrating with IaC tools-like OpenTofu,
Terraform, Prometheus, Ansible and more-allowing developers to self-provision
resources without creating IT bottlenecks and exposing the organization to
excessive cost and security risks.
3. The hero model of full-stack engineer will fade, replaced by
collaborative, skill-diverse teams.
The role of the full-stack engineer has traditionally been lauded
as the ultimate in developer versatility. But as infrastructure becomes more
complex-touching everything from automation and orchestration to security and
compliance-the expectation that one engineer can handle everything has become
unrealistic for most large enterprises. A full-stack engineer may thrive in
smaller organizations with simpler tech stacks, but in a larger enterprise
context, specialization is essential to scale and maintain secure, efficient
infrastructures. Plus, the full-stack "hero" is like a unicorn - extremely
rare. Instead of builx`ding their organizations around the hard-to-find
full-stack engineer in a world that increasingly requires specialization,
successful enterprises are building teams that combine specialized skills,
using tools like Spacelift and other approaches that support collaboration and
efficient workflows.
What do these trends mean for you?
As we enter 2025, these three trends-OpenTofu's open source
momentum, the embrace of hybrid architecture, and a shift away from full-stack
generalism-signal an infrastructure management landscape in transition.
Companies embracing these trends-and the tools that support them-will be better
positioned to meet the demands of a fast-evolving market, where agility,
security and strategic resource management define success.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pawel Hytry, CEO Spacelift
Pawel Hytry is co-founder and CEO of Spacelift and a founding
member and maintainer of OpenTofu. Prior to founding Spacelift, he served as
Managing Director at FitPass Group. Hytry holds a degree in Operations &
Information Management from the University of Pennsylvania and is the first
Endeavor entrepreneur from Poland.