Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2024 Las Vegas: Day 1 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference, taking place this week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference.

On Day 1 from the conference, we are highlighting the Gartner opening keynote, data centers on the edge and infrastructure & operations (I&O) skills. Be sure to check this page throughout the day for updates.

Presented by Gartner Experts Autumn Stanish, Hassan Ennaciri and Roger Williams

When confronted with a constant stream of new AI tools, it can be stressful to make "the best choice," and leaders can easily get lost in the hype of "the next big thing". In this keynote, Gartner experts Autumn Stanish, Hassan Ennaciri and Roger Williams, discussed how infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders can maximize the benefits of AI augmentation, and how to equip business leaders to leverage I&O’s full potential.

• “Within I&O, 70% of GenAI investments so far have exceeded or greatly exceeded leadership expectations for productivity.”
• “I&O teams spend 60% of time each week to set up the infrastructure and IT operations to enable GenAI across the enterprise.”
• “The best heads of I&O aren’t just keeping up; they’re setting the pace by mastering the art of adaptation for an AI-augmented future. They focus on three areas - Adaptive Agility; Adaptive Delivery and Adaptive Resourcing.”
• “I&O leaders evolve their infrastructure with infrastructure platform engineering (IPE) and site reliability engineering (SRE) to ensure adaptive delivery and resilience.”
• “Prioritize skills that contribute directly to upcoming business objectives. We call it: connecting “learning to earning.”

Presented by Jeffrey Hewitt, VP Analyst, Gartner

As the growth of cloud computing continues, organizations retain specific applications on-premises. In this session, Jeffrey Hewitt, VP Analyst at Gartner, discussed how the same business and technology drivers that cause an application to be retained on-premises are the same reasons that applications are deployed at the edge. 

• “Retaining or establishing a data center should not be left to chance. It remains a key part of a digital transformation strategy for many organizations.”

• “Whether we speak of edge, a remote office, a co-location facility, or a traditional on-premises data center, this is about making the right infrastructure selection for the right location and use case.”

• “There is an opportunity for I&O to take a leadership role with edge. A business case must articulate the objectives in business language of an edge course of action and then identify the positive business outcomes.”

• “Not all business impacts for edge computing are easily quantified in dollars, and they don’t have to be.”

• “I&O leaders should examine data center plans that will need C-level approval to implement.”

Presented by Mark Margevicius, VP Analyst, Gartner

The pace of change in infrastructure and operations (I&O) is accelerating, driven by rapid technological advancements, evolving business requirements, and high employee turnover, making skill development more challenging than ever. In this session, Mark Margevicius, VP Analyst at Gartner, explained how to identify gaps between existing and required skills and address the challenges of skills development to drive business success.

• “Current upskilling approaches are ineffective. I&O leaders should build an environment of continuous learning to meet changing digital business needs.”  

• “Competencies and non-technical skills, such as creative thinking, significantly matter and need to be emphasized as critical by I&O leaders.”

• “Improve skills forecasting by running a planning session with your leadership team, treating it like a virtual workshop where each direct report contributes their insights on changing skill demands within their team.”

• “Adopting a cross-functional approach, like building fusion teams, creates adaptive workflows and encourages employees to value upskilling.”

• “I&O leaders looking to fully leverage GenAI capabilities need to branch beyond IT skills and develop a domain understanding of the business while also expanding specific AI skills.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Matt LoDolce at matt.lodolce@gartner.com.