By 2027, 85% of IT workload placements made before 2022 will be outdated—leaving many organizations struggling to keep pace with business demands.
This roadmap empowers Heads of Infrastructure and IT Operations (I&O) to become proactive partners in digital transformation—fueling innovation, agility, and resilience across the enterprise.
In 2026, infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders face a complex balancing act: balancing divergent priorities between CIOs and I&O heads, addressing the AI paradox, high satisfaction but low adoption - and strategically managing persistent technical debt that remains high on the radar but low in action.
Explore how leading I&O teams sharpen strategic vision, align with executives, and optimize delivery frameworks. Gain concrete guidance on clarifying business value, prioritizing high-impact services, and taking deliberate steps to address mission‑critical challenges in 2026 and beyond.
Evolving business and technical demands compel Infrastructure & IT Operations executives to advance their skills to remain relevant. I&O leaders must adopt innovative strategies that leverage technology advancements to stay ahead and drive impact business outcomes.
In the face of a rapidly shifting technological landscape, infrastructure modernization is not just beneficial but essential for enhancing operational efficiency, reducing costs, and elevating performance capabilities. Navigate your path to infrastructure modernization by leveraging this actionable and easy to use roadmap.
Cloud outages highlight the importance of resilience and proactive planning for uninterrupted operations. Organizations must design architectures that minimize risk and ensure continuity even in the face of service disruptions. Use this actionable roadmap to strengthen your cloud strategy and build a foundation for long-term reliability.
Infrastructure and Operations leaders face growing pressure to deliver agility, resilience, and cost efficiency. Success requires a clear vision and actionable priorities to navigate complex technology landscapes. This roadmap equips Heads of I&O with practical steps to align strategy, optimize resources, and drive measurable business outcomes.
Effective IT operations and cloud management require forward-thinking strategies to balance agility, cost, and resilience. Leaders must anticipate evolving business demands while optimizing resources and mitigating risk. This comprehensive planning guide provides actionable steps to align technology priorities with long-term goals and deliver sustainable value.
Gather alongside I&O leaders in Las Vegas to gain insight on emerging trends, receive one-on-one guidance from Gartner experts and create a strategy to tackle your priorities head-on.
Through 2026, more than 80% of independent software vendors (ISVs) will have embedded GenAI capabilities in their enterprise applications, up from less than 1% today. GenAI will introduce internal impacts (new capabilities within existing tools, new skills needed, etc.) and external impacts (more application updates, increased focus on technical debt, enterprise support requirements, PC hardware changes) on the digital workplace.
I&O leaders responsible for digital workplace services must prepare for rapid changes by assessing GenAI use cases to enhance tools, develop GenAI skills and prompt libraries, ensure human validation of GenAI responses to minimize risks, and adopt modern patching for frequent updates.
Heads of infrastructure and IT operations who are new to role are under pressure to quickly deliver value. Achieve early successes and establish your credibility by taking impactful action on an important, high-profile tactical challenge and building strong connections with direct reports.
In the first 30 days, focus on achieving three goals: secure an early win by solving a significant problem, initiate key activities for ongoing progress on critical challenges, and address leadership obstacles with actions that enhance team cohesion and strategic alignment.
By 2027, platform engineering principles will influence more than 50% of infrastructure and operations technology decisions, which is a substantial increase from less than 20% today.
I&O leaders should drive enterprise transformation by adopting platform engineering principles, integrating design patterns into infrastructure solutions, and forming infrastructure platform teams to enhance value for delivery teams.
Gartner is an objective resource for more than 15,000 enterprises in ~90 countries and territories.
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