Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2025 Sydney: Day 1 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2025, taking place this week in Sydney, Australia. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference.

On Day 1 from the conference, we are highlighting sessions on the future of data centers; how to enhance cybersecurity for data and storage; and top generative AI uses cases that will benefit I&O.

• Gartner Identifies the Top Trends Driving the Future of Cloud

Presented by Tony Harvey, VP Analyst, Gartner

Data centers are experiencing significant transformations driven by AI, sustainability, infrastructure platforms, automation, and various emerging technologies and trends. In this session, Tony Harvey, VP Analyst at Gartner, discussed the evolution of data center infrastructures and what to anticipate in the coming years.

• “The synergy of four fundamental areas — cloud, AI, edge computing and automation — forms the foundation of both modern and future data centers.”
• “Sustainability is one of the most important aspects of how data centers are being transformed today due to their energy requirements.”
• Key principles of future data centers include:
  - Scalability and flexibility
  - Resilient architectures and advanced security
  - Modularity and efficiency
• “Power is the number one factor driving most emerging technologies in the data center industry today.”
• “Liquid cooling is an emerging technology in data centers increasingly implemented in large facilities due to AI and higher energy density requirements.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com.

Presented by Julia Palmer, VP Analyst, Gartner 

Traditional infrastructure security layers focused on network and endpoint are no longer enough to prevent cyberattacks and minimize data loss. In this session, Julia Palmer, VP Analyst at Gartner, outlined crucial steps to secure data and storage from diverse cyber threats, with a particular focus on cyberstorage as an active defense strategy.

• “Data storage and backup systems fall short in safeguarding against malicious activities, such as data downloads, exfiltration, manipulation, deletion, destruction or encryption.”
• “Cyberstorage solutions offer robust active defense against, and recovery from, cyberattacks targeting data storage systems and their data.”
• “Don’t rely solely on cyberstorage for cyber protection. Instead, focus on a multilayer data security approach, integrating with SIEM, XDR and SOAR tools.”
• “Prioritize active defense and security of unstructured and structured data storage systems. Identifying and blocking an attack is just as important as recovering from one.”
• “Avoid relying solely on data backups and snapshot methods to address cyber resilience concerns. These should serve as a last resort for disaster recovery rather than a proactive defense for your data.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com.

Presented by Cameron Haight, VP Analyst, Gartner

Infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders must understand how generative AI (GenAI) can increase I&O-related key performance indicators. In this session, Cameron Haight, VP Analyst at Gartner, identified the top GenAI use cases that benefit I&O.

• “There are five categories of ready to deploy GenAI use cases for I&O: code generation, document generation, virtual support agents, ticket support and content analysis and summarization.”
• “One way to identify a GenAI use case involves identifying use cases within an organization. This can be achieved by working with cloud architects, key experts and other knowledgeable individuals within the organization to pull out a list of areas that could benefit from AI improvements.”
• “The other approach is to be open to what vendors have to offer. Many vendors have developed innovative use cases that I&O leaders did not invent with their team.”
• “While I&O leaders progress with their AI ambition, they will discover that in many use cases, GenAI will just be a ‘supporting AI’ ensuring a natural language communication between human and machine. Most of the value will be provided by other AI.”
• “I&O doesn’t want to focus on ‘GenAI only’ or use only GenAI. Rather focus on the value the use case will bring to the organization, the ROI and the balance between risks and benefits.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com.