The beginning of a new year is often a time of hope and optimism. A time when we look forward to the future and think about what we can do better. As infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders look ahead to the next 12 months, what resolutions should they make? Here is my answer to this question.
#1 Stay on top of the latest technology trends
Commit to regularly staying up to date by reading industry blogs, attending conferences, and keeping an eye on emerging technologies. As an I&O leader, it’s essential to stay informed about the latest developments in the field to make informed decisions about technology investments and strategy.
#2 Foster communication and collaboration with business
Build a positive and productive work environment, working closely with business areas, fostering open communication, transparency, and trust; ensuring your I&O strategies are perfectly aligned with the needs of the organisation and its goals for 2023.
#3 Be more “proactive” and less “reactive”
Lead from the front, sensing the demand, working with the business to anticipate needs/demands and deliver on them. Understand how tomorrow’s infrastructure can help deliver new services and business value.
#4 Prioritise I&O talents
Strive to have the right I&O people with the right skills in the right place. Promote a culture of continuous learning by encouraging your I&O team to stay up to date on the latest technology and industry best practices by providing opportunities for training and professional development.
#5 Reduce I&O risks
Make sure your team is following industry-standard security practices; I&O availability, reliability, and performance goals are achieved; and the organisation’s disaster recovery and business continuity plans are up-to-date and tested regularly. Make sure to communicate and address existing gaps or issues.
#6 Manage costs and get lean
To withstand economic headwinds like rising energy costs, increased inflation, geopolitical issues, and continued supply chain challenges.
#7 Manage IT assets and services as “products”
Manage “Products” rather than “Projects” or “IT services”. “Products” are more dynamic, and are managed in an iterative, agile way. They can also be directly connected to business capabilities and outcomes.
#8 Accelerate automation and platform engineering
Build a self-service hybrid digital infrastructure by adopting a platform engineering discipline. Foster the creation of I&O platforms across on-premises, cloud, containers, and edge. Continuously improve I&O platforms through a product-centric approach and agile techniques that enable incremental enhancements in automation and governance.
#9 Prioritise sustainability
Seek opportunities to minimise the environmental impact of the organisation’s IT infrastructure, by implementing energy-efficient technologies and practices.
#10 Foster a culture of innovation
Encourage your I&O team to think outside the box and come up with creative ideas for using technology to drive value for the business. Inspire them to discover and utilise new technologies and devise strategies for integrating them into the existing I&O capabilities.
These are probably the most important resolutions I&O leaders should make in 2023 (IMO, of course). However, whether they are able to keep them or not is another story.
First published on Gartner Blog Network
