Gartner® IOCS 2022: Are you ready to leverage today’s top technology trends?

The Gartner® IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference left a lasting impression on IT leaders across the country. Following its jampacked agenda – and with a new year right around the corner – we’re here to break down the key trends to look out for in technology.

Building a cloud strategy is a must

The COVID-19 pandemic knocked many organizations off their feet. Learning to adapt to cloud while adjusting to a new, distributed workforce caused businesses to rethink their technology infrastructure – and now there is no going back. Building resiliency means building up your business’ cloud strategy.

With adaptive AI, the metaverse, and super apps on the horizon as emerging technologies, cloud computing will continue to evolve. As organizations continue their cloud journeys, combining cloud and on-premises infrastructure will be key to achieving both mid- and long-term goals.

Implementing a hybrid infrastructure eliminates the need to rely on legacy data center systems while allowing room for growth – and SHI can help point you in the right strategic direction. In addition to being your trusted advisor for the latest data center technology, SHI provides a suite of capabilities to support you in your migration, adoption, and optimization efforts across the top three hyperscalers. From migrating workloads and modernizing applications to maximizing the business value of your cloud investments, our team can help assess and evaluate your current cloud strategy and set you up for success.

Integrate security throughout the DevOps process

With an increase in the exploitation of vulnerabilities across applications, software supply chains are at increased risk. Organizations are now being forced to reevaluate their software security measures and become more proactive in integrating security into every step of the development process. Infrastructure and operations leaders must find ways to break down barriers and improve processes to adjust their software development lifecycles.

Secure access service edge, or SASE, continues to emerge as an indispensable solution for securely connecting users to applications. SASE can be layered with a variety of cybersecurity tools to help secure hybrid infrastructure with a single integrated service. As remote work continues to grow, the SASE approach enables your organizations to construct a security framework that supports an ever-evolving workforce.

SHI has a robust security practice, and our zero trust solutions help us advance your organization towards its security goals. We offer holistic assessments of your security posture to provide enhanced insight into the tools you need to prevent an attack. Our integrated security solutions can help your business meet your growing needs while securing applications throughout the software development lifecycle.

Environmental sustainability is a top priority

Addressing the impact of business on the climate has become a key initiative for organizations everywhere. We see customers lobbying to promote environmental sustainability with many suppliers feeling pressured to maintain their sustainability credentials to keep their businesses up and running.

It can be challenging to know where to start when creating a sustainability strategy. But making it a key focus can improve the performance and efficiency of your infrastructure while aligning with your business goals. Looking at data center efficiency, cloud adoption, device choices, and equipment recycling are great places to start when it comes to driving sustainability initiatives.

We know sustainability has become a driving factor for many organizations when they are choosing technology partners. SHI has increasingly strived to drive IT innovation with sustainability as a key metric. Our data center assessments, equipment recycling services, and asset disposal program are just a few of the ways we can help your organization work towards your goals while offsetting costs and increasing efficiency.

Optimize to maximize value, not just reduce cost

With cost optimization being a huge factor in choosing a resilient infrastructure strategy, organizations need to realize public cloud isn’t automatically less expensive than an on-premises data center. Realizing savings requires a migration strategy driven by business goals, modernization of applications, and an intentional cost optimization program specifically aimed at maximizing business value.

Creating an adoption and change management (ACM) plan to help your organization remain productive while also increasing time-to-value can help yield higher technology ROI and support the end-user experience. With a well-executed ACM strategy, your organization can meet your desired business outcomes by ensuring your users not only benefit from new technologies, but also enjoy them.

It would be simple to just reduce public cloud spend by choosing what to keep running and what to turn off based solely on cost, but without knowledge of an organization’s business goals, this would be disastrous.

From professional services to managed services, SHI can help you engineer your cloud spend to ensure you are maximizing your ROI. Our cost optimization services start by providing actionable recommendations and then we work with you to prioritize and execute our recommendations based on business value.

Solve what’s next

Bringing value and innovation is not always as easy as it looks. At Gartner® IOCS, we learned why having an internal cloud strategy is a must, how security should be embedded in everything, why sustainability is driving technology innovation, and how business value is not always just about cutting costs. SHI has the tools to enhance your capabilities while leveraging these top trends to help you progress on your digital transformation journey.

To learn more about how SHI can help you solve what’s next in hybrid infrastructure, download our next-generation infrastructure ebook today.

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