Key trends IT professionals should keep in mind for 2024

According to Gartner the use of generative AI within enterprise applications will be a defining factor in the 2024 tech landscape. But this isn’t the only force that will impact how technology is deployed and consumed.

Geopolitical disruption, economic uncertainty, and the energy transition imperative are all key drivers. As such, decision-makers will be motivated to bring their business, technology, and operations closer together with a few key things in mind: Elevating business performance, productivity, and sustainability. Let’s look at some of the key trends IT professionals need to keep an eye on in 2024.

The green tech focus intensifies

With big tech brands like Google committing to becoming carbon-free by 2030, environmental and resource conservation initiatives are now a key corporate goal. Going into 2024, it seems like that efforts to change business practices will only continue to intensify.

In the UK the introduction of the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting framework, combined with escalating demands for data and digital services, means that 2024 will be the year when many organizations will be prompted to rethink their data center strategy.

For some, this will mean offloading more applications to the cloud, so they can decommission servers and reduce their energy consumption. For others, this will involve partnering with a specialist provider that can offer more environmentally friendly models such as IaaS and SaaS. A shift informed by industry research that shows how moving from on-premises systems to IaaS architectures enables organizations to reduce their energy usage and carbon emissions by up to 65 percent and 84 percent respectively.

When looking for a data center partner, IT professionals will need to evaluate closely a potential provider’s ESG ratings and green credentials; for example, commitment to using renewable energy or cutting-edge AI-based solutions that improve operational decisions like workload management and capacity planning. Similarly, the ability to deliver customized and detailed sustainability reporting that makes it easier for IT teams to report accurately and transparently on their organization’s carbon footprint and environmental impact will also be important.

Energy security issues will drive new approaches

For IT managers, sustainability considerations will influence many of the decisions relating to IT models and service provision. However, escalating demand for data center capacity combined with a worldwide shortage of power is spurring new innovations in data design. These technologies will be designed to meet the increased power density requirements of high-performance computing. As a result, Gartner predicts that by 2025 80 percent of enterprises will have shut down their traditional on-premises data center and turned to data center specialists to make life more manageable.

However, net zero isn’t the only issue that organizations want assurance on. The ongoing instability in the energy market means that operational resilience is increasingly dependent on energy security.

In 2024, IT leaders will be increasingly evaluating how data center operators and service providers are taking steps to explore decentralized energy plans that will reduce reliance on overburdened grids. That could include utilizing on-site energy generation technologies such as solar PVs, wind turbines, biogas or hydrogen technologies that will deliver enhanced energy resilience.

Hybrid and multi-cloud adoption will continue to rise

Last year the need for more predictable and forecastable pricing structures drove a growing number of IT decision makers to rethink their reliance on hyperscale public cloud providers.

In the current economic climate, more businesses are taking the decision to opt for highly flexible hybrid and multi-cloud options that will save on IT costs. Added to this, tech teams now have the skills needed to optimize how the cloud works for their businesses.

In addition to tailoring cloud setups and fine-tuning performance, IT professionals are also becoming highly adept at enabling different business functions to manage their own cloud services.

In 2024, more IT decision-makers will be looking to get a grip on their total cost of cloud ownership and pick and choose the services they need. However, making the shift to a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy will require careful consideration of a number of data privacy and protection issues.

When evaluating cloud providers, conversations around security and compliance measures will be a must have. This will mean asking detailed questions around everything from data residence, data loss prevention and data resilience.

The rise and rise of AI

With AI technologies set to transform the workplace as we know it, IT leaders will need to navigate a number of potential issues on the horizon. This includes putting in place robust and adaptable governance frameworks to address ethical concerns such as bias and discrimination and limit misuse. Additionally, the growing adoption of generative AI will intensify the need to address issues around digital governance and the development of appropriate risk management strategies.

As AI becomes mainstream, IT leaders will also need to upskill employees in readiness for putting generative AI tools into users’ hands, evaluate how best to protect proprietary data and provide guidelines on whether or not users should be accessing free tools like ChatGPT.

Finally, making the best use of tools like generative AI will also depend on having the right data, computing resources, and networks in place to ensure that organizational objectives can be achieved.

Reframing commercial relationships

Current economic conditions mean that many IT leaders will be looking to their channel partners to deliver more value-add services or adopt a much more flexible approach to commercial engagements. This agility may take the form of shorter contract lengths, greater pricing flexibility, or the delivery of a wider choice of services that can sustain and support the organization in the longer term.

In the context of tech-enabled transformations, working with partners that can plug knowledge gaps and strengthen the IT team’s ability to innovate and deliver business outcomes will be a necessity. In 2024, IT leaders looking to bring talent and innovation to the table and deliver on cost will be asking a lot more from their channel partners.

Terry Storrar is MD at Leaseweb UK.