IDC FutureScape: Top 10 Predictions for the Future of Digital Infrastructure

International Data Corporation’s (IDC) highlights key, impactful trends for the future of digital infrastructure and its top 10 predictions for the next five years. Digital businesses depend on digital infrastructure – compute and data management horsepower; network connectivity; operational support; and management – to power business applications, analytics, and activities.

IDC's Future of Digital Infrastructure framework provides a model for understanding how a successful digital-first strategy is built on critical digital infrastructure investments across dedicated on-premises datacenters, edge locations, and public cloud resources. Digital infrastructure spans compute, storage, network, infrastructure software (including virtualization and containers) and the automation, AI/ML analytics, and security software and cloud services needed to maintain and optimize legacy and modern applications and data. Ecosystem partners, including systems integrators and channel partners, are also important contributors.

Organizations that optimize hybrid and multicloud digital infrastructure environments consistently realize higher levels of operational resiliency, security, revenue growth, and overall productivity at scale.

"Digital infrastructure provides the underpinning for digital business agility and innovation," explains Mary Johnston Turner, research vice president, Future of Digital Infrastructure. "IDC's 2023 predictions for the future of digital infrastructure identify critical shifts in governance, operations, architecture, and sourcing that need to be factored into enterprise digital transformation strategies going forward."

IDC's top 10 predictions for the Future of Digital Infrastructure are:

Prediction 1: By 2026, 65% of tech buyers will prioritize as-a-service consumption models for infrastructure purchases to help restrain IT spending growth and fill ITOps talent gaps.

Prediction 2: By 2026, 65% of IT organizations will only purchase infrastructure solutions that incorporate predictive cyber-resiliency mechanisms proven to reduce post-cyberintrusion recovery efforts.

Prediction 3: By 2027, AI-enabled automation will ensure consistent digital infrastructure configuration, performance, cost, and security by reducing the need for human operations intervention by 70% and improving SLOs.

Prediction 4: By 2023, amid ongoing IT supply chain disruptions, 80% of G5000 infrastructure customers will adopt proactive multisourcing strategies to protect themselves against future IT supply risks.

Prediction 5: By 2024, 40% of digital business apps will depend on contractually guaranteed cross-provider data transfer and operational/financial data sharing agreements between public clouds and on-prem tech partners.

Prediction 6: By 2026, 95% of companies will invest in fit-for-purpose, heterogeneous compute technologies that deliver faster insights from complex data sets to drive differentiated business outcomes.

Prediction 7: By 2025, 70% of the G2000 will prioritize the trusted infrastructure of sovereign clouds to ensure consistent security and local/regional regulatory compliance for specific sensitive workloads and data.

Prediction 8: By 2025, to ensure data and workflow integrations spanning distributed clouds and edge environments, 50% of enterprises will deploy multicloud networking, bringing consistency and simplicity to NetOps.

Prediction 9: By 2027, the need for faster, higher-quality data-driven decisions will cause 80% of G2000 CIOs to mandate companywide data logistics strategies for data management, protection, and integration.

Prediction 10: By 2024, due to economic pressures, 50% of G2000 will prioritize infrastructure vendor selections based on tech partner ecosystems that offer cost savings provided by preferred pricing and support deals.

IDC's Future of Digital Infrastructure predictions are presented in full detail in the report, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Digital Infrastructure 2023 Predictions (IDC #US48376222). Copies of this report are available to qualified members of the media.

An on-demand replay of IDC's Worldwide Future of Digital Infrastructure 2023 Predictions webcast will be available as one of more than 40 FutureScape webinars that will address the CIO Agenda, Digital Business, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Sustainable Strategies and Technologies, and a range of industry-specific and Future of X topics. To register for any of these webinars, please visit www.idc.com/futurescape2023.

About IDC FutureScape

IDC FutureScape presents information about technologies, markets, and ecosystems that help CIOs better understand future trends and their impacts on the enterprise. They also present guidance on complex, fast-moving environments and offer prescriptive, actionable recommendations. Every year, IDC identifies the key external drivers that will influence businesses in the coming years. An IDC FutureScape establishes 10 predictions derived from these drivers, analyzes the impacts on the IT organization, and proposes recommendations for the next five years. To learn more about IDC FutureScape, please visit: www.idc.com/futurescape2023.

About IDC's Future of Digital Infrastructure Research Practice

IDC's Future of Digital Infrastructure recognizes the strategic role interconnected data center, public cloud and edge platforms play in enabling the digitization of business. Voice of the customer research tracks how enterprises are modernizing architectures, pivoting operating models, and reinventing the ways they partner with vendor and cloud ecosystems. To learn more about all of IDC's Future of X research practices, please visit https://www.idc.com/FoX.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,300 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology, IT benchmarking and sourcing, and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data, and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights.

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This IDC FutureScape highlights key, impactful trends for the future of digital infrastructure – compute and data management horsepower; network connectivity; operational support; and management – and IDC's top 10 predictions for the next five years.