Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2026 Sydney: Day 1 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference 2026, 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 navigating the hype to ensure I&O success; when cloud strategies meet digital sovereignty; and how to avoid the top mistake in cloud strategies.

• Gartner Forecasts Australian Organizations Will Spend More Than A$33 Billion on Public Cloud in 2026

Presented by Autumn Stanish, Director Analyst and Paul Delory, VP Analyst, Gartner

Agentic AI is a fundamental shift for infrastructure and operations (I&O), demanding new operational paradigms. In this session, Autumn Stanish, Director Analyst and Paul Delory, VP Analyst at Gartner, shared a roadmap on how I&O can be a value-driving function of AI.

• “Gartner predicts AI agents will be implemented in 60% of all IT operations tools by 2028.”
• “The best way for I&O leaders to get started with agentic AI is with practical, foundational use cases in IT operations. This means identifying a narrow domain where a task requires a certain degree of complex judgment, and doesn’t have predefined outcomes.”
• “Continuous operations is the key to providing guardrails around AI agents and giving them structure. A staged, fully automated delivery pipeline with built-in guardrails and test suites must be developed to make sure everything is working at each stage.”
• “I&O leaders now have the second-mover advantage. All the tools they need to do continuous operations are now readily available, and most are free and open source.”
• “The I&O identity must be shifted from service provider to platform provider, becoming the engine that delivers custom tooling and standardized platforms that truly build business value.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with Autumn Stanish and/or Paul Delory by contacting Emma Keen at emma.keen@gartner.com.

Presented by Douglas Toombs, VP Analyst, Gartner

Geopolitical uncertainty is accelerating organizations’ demands for control, portability and digital autonomy. Cloud strategies today must navigate economic nationalism, cross-border regulations and the need to reduce reliance on single vendors. In this session, Douglas Toombs, VP Analyst at Gartner, discussed how organizations can address global cloud initiatives and diversification needs across sovereign cloud, private cloud, multicloud and cloud exit strategies. 

• “There are currently no suitable non-U.S. alternatives to the big hyperscalers, except in China, where intellectual property protections are a concern. As a result, true technological sovereignty isn’t possible today outside these countries.” 

• “Organizations need to determine the risks they are protecting against, such as regulatory changes, government sanctions, financial shifts, service interruptions or security breaches affecting providers.” 

• “One of the biggest challenges is defining the specific triggers that would require an organization to begin an exit. Failing to do so can create downstream challenges and set teams up for failure.”

• “Clear exit triggers and appropriate structure, such as defined budgets and timelines, are critical to making cloud exit strategies successful." 

• “Organizations should consider alternate strategies offering the best protection for their investment, such as shelter-in-place, distributed or sovereign cloud, hide-in-plain-sight, or private/hybrid/multicloud. Each has different cost, complexity and risk trade-offs.”

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

Presented by Adrian Wong, Director Analyst, Gartner

Many organizations think they have a working cloud strategy or are lacking one altogether. They often consider IT needs without input from other parts of the organization. In this session, Adrian Wong, Director Analyst at Gartner, discussed the top mistakes Gartner sees most often when reviewing cloud strategy documents.

• “The most common mistake is assuming a cloud strategy concerns only IT. It’s about producing new business outcomes resulting from the availability of new services and models.”

• “Many organizations don’t believe they need an exit strategy, yet it’s vital to the success of any cloud strategy. It’s like having an insurance policy that you’ll hopefully never need to use.”

• “A cloud strategy is often confused with an implementation plan. It’s important to keep them separate so the strategy sets the foundations and direction, while the implementation plan puts that strategy into effect.”

• “Many believe it’s too late to devise a cloud strategy as they’ve been using the cloud for years. Driving adoption without it will cause resistance from those not aligned on key drivers and principles, which will slow down adoption and potentially jeopardize the entire project.”

• “Outsourcing a cloud strategy may sound attractive, but avoid doing so as outsourcers don’t know as much about your business strategy as you do.”

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