In 2024, the IT landscape will continue to shift and evolve. Driven by the relentless advancement of cloud computing and the growing demand for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, the next year will be marked by several trends that will become more mainstream.
From the dominance of cloud-native virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions to the impact of end-user experience by cybersecurity tools to the emergence of the hybrid and multi-cloud architecture as the new “data center,” let us dive into each trend and what they mean for the industry.
Cloud-native VDI will dominate the natural shift away from legacy VDI
Organizations have heavily relied on vendors, such as Citrix and VMware, for their virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) over the past two decades. However, both companies are going through changes in their business ownership and strategy, leaving a lot of CIOs and IT leaders rethinking their budgets and implementations.
These traditional vendors have worked well when the workplace was a singular location, but given their single site/on-premises origins, they have struggled to meet the demands of the modern hybrid and multi-cloud environment. In the coming year, we can expect to see a significant increase in enterprises opting for a modern, cloud-native VDI solution rather than the complex, costly legacy systems that were really designed for another (previous) era.
This change is especially key when organizations count the cost of downtime, which can add up to billions of dollars. The switch to cloud-native VDI infrastructure will save considerable time and money otherwise spent on the deployment, management, and maintenance of legacy infrastructure, allowing a new, modern VDI to emerge as the dominant desktop virtualization platform.
IT Teams will spend more time on work that matters and employees will be more productive and satisfied with their experience, transforming IT from a traditional expense to a profit center.
The number of cybersecurity tools adopted will negatively impact end-user experience
Updates to security tools, applications, clients, and drivers, alongside zero-day patches, will create disruption and growing frustration for the end user as more companies continue to implement layered security safeguards to their systems. Nearly 75% of CISOs highlight that employees are frustrated with current organizational security policies, and as layered security protocols are increasingly added, end-user dissatisfaction will grow.
This could pose a substantial risk to employee productivity and retention. In the coming year, this will reflect in more reluctance and less tolerance for cumbersome, aggravating software patches and security protocols that interfere with day-to-day work.
Devising new strategies for employee satisfaction tied to technology stacks will be paramount. To keep employee productivity and happiness high, companies will need to look towards a comprehensive approach that enables easy, fulfilling end-user access while not compromising security. This will require inline, native tools that monitor end-user productivity and satisfaction to uncover the impact of disruptive, constant updates on users.
More companies will embrace the new hybrid “data center”
In the past few years, the adoption of multi-cloud infrastructure has exponentially accelerated. In fact, a recent survey suggests that 98% of companies on the public cloud have already crafted plans to switch to multi-cloud architecture. Particularly in the current remote and hybrid work model, companies are depending more and more on the cloud, and more often multiple clouds, to lower costs and increase flexibility.
In 2024, we will see more companies shifting toward hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. There is a clear distinction from previous years as they aim to combine the two approaches for seamless integration. Businesses will benefit from the flexibility and scalability of multi-cloud architecture as well as the sovereignty and control over their data and applications supported through the hybrid cloud, across regions, intra- or inter-country, or around the world.
The 2024 outlook for IT focuses on teams preparing to take full advantage of the shifts driven by cloud and multi-cloud environments. Although this is not net new, major advancements will shine through different industries as they adopt further new technologies and set up the basis for future-proofing their enterprises.
Now is the time for organizations to adapt and embrace modern technologies. The move to cloud-native VDI and opting for solutions that support enhanced end-user capabilities to streamline business processes will be key in the upcoming years.