The winds of change continue to whip across the global business landscape, forcing organizations to adapt with increasing agility. To weather this storm and achieve operational excellence in 2024, CIOs must look beyond familiar shores and embrace emerging technologies that push the boundaries of efficiency and resilience. This blog charts the course for ten such trends, each promising to revolutionize the way we deliver, manage, and optimize operations.

Sustainable DevOps

Beyond the technological bells and whistles, 2024 will see CIOs prioritizing Sustainable DevOps. DevOps may have revolutionized software delivery, but relying on it as a mere “fix-it” tool is short-sighted. Instead, embrace Sustainable DevOps – a data-driven approach that aligns IT operations with your long-term vision. It’s not about trends; it’s about continuous value delivery, empowered teams, and resilient infrastructure that adapts to change and fuels innovation. Forget quick fixes – think of strategic partnerships, optimized resources, and building resilience against disruption.

• Build a business case for sustainable DevOps: Understand the tangible benefits, from cost savings to enhanced agility and market responsiveness.
• Adopt a sustainable mindset: Embrace cultural shifts, foster collaboration, and champion data-driven decision-making.
• Implement practical practices: Discover concrete steps like automation, infrastructure optimization, and continuous feedback loops.
• Scale for growth: Implement strategies to spread your organisation’s DevOps culture and practices, building a future-proof IT landscape.

Democratized Generative AI (GenAI) 

The September 2023 survey by Gartner found that 55% of organizations are currently in the pilot (or production) phase of Generative AI implementation. On its part, GenAI enables the democratization of skills and knowledge through natural language processing. 

In the operations domain, Democratized GenAI offers both agility and adaptability improvements. With the growing demand of cloud with open-source platforms, GenAI products are increasingly getting democratized. For instance, Atlassian has recently released GenAI-powered tools for cloud-based collaboration tools like JIRA and Confluence.

Intelligent Automation

Another emerging trend in 2024 is Intelligent Automation (IA) which enables enterprises to “do more with less.” Intelligent Automation is the combination of automation with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Process Management (BPM), and Machine Learning. 

The global market for intelligent automation is projected to grow to $21.1 billion by 2027. Overall, IA is critical for reducing operations costs while improving operational efficiency. 

Infrastructure Platform Engineering

According to Gartner, platform engineering will improve developer productivity with automated infrastructure operations. Paul Delory of Gartner says, “Platform engineering emerged in response to the increasing complexity of modern software architectures.” By 2026, 80% of software engineering companies will have a team of platform engineers.

In the drive for digital transformation, infrastructure platform engineering is a growing trend that can modernize the delivery of enterprise software. Besides improving developer’s productivity, platform engineering can provide support through reusable tools and capabilities. 

Unified DevOps toolchain

The DevOps revolution has empowered us to deliver software faster and more efficiently. But with great power comes great… complexity. The abundance of DevOps tools available has led to a phenomenon known as “tool sprawl,” with organizations wielding a dizzying array of solutions for version control, CI/CD, monitoring, and more. Fragmented DevOps leads to siloed data, reduced collaboration, and increased complexity. 

Here are some key strategies for achieving a unified DevOps ecosystem: 

• Strategic tool selection: Resist the urge to hoard; instead, curate a focused toolset that aligns with your specific needs and integrates seamlessly. Prioritize interoperability and open-source solutions.
• Centralized hubs: Establish a central platform or portal that serves as a single source of truth for DevOps data and workflows. This fosters collaboration, streamlines communication, and facilitates real-time visibility.
• Automation as the glue: Automate repetitive tasks and data exchange between tools, reducing manual effort and minimizing human error. Invest in robust API integrations and embrace automation frameworks.
• Cultural shift: Cultivate a culture of tool awareness and responsibility. Encourage shared ownership of the DevOps toolchain, empower teams to advocate for efficient workflows, and promote continuous improvement.

AIOps for Proactive IT Operations Management

In 2024, CIOs can also look forward to the growth of AIOps as among the top DevOps trends. AIOps is the application of AI capabilities like natural language processing and machine learning to automate IT operations. As IT operations grow more complex, AIOps is enabling “intelligent” decision-making through predictive analytics. Effectively, this means finding data patterns and trends for IT operations teams to proactively prevent operational issues.

Additionally, AIOps enables faster “root cause analysis” of IT incidents and reduces the mean time to recovery (MTTR).

Accelerated Software Delivery

In 2024, software delivery operations are set for a significant surge. Operational teams are likely to regain control over resource allocation. Software engineering will shift from the realm of individual productivity to team efficiency. With the advent of GenAI for coding, smart development companies must invest in their infrastructure pipeline.

Among Gartner’s top technology trends for 2024, AI-powered software engineering will enable development teams to meet the demand for accelerated software delivery.

Collaborative Culture

At its core, DevOps promotes collaboration between the Development and Operations teams. Gartner defines DevOps as “the change in technology culture, focusing on rapid software delivery through the adoption of agile and lean practices.” According to the Atlassian survey on DevOps trends, “People and culture are the top factors of a successful DevOps implementation.”

Some of the highlights of a collaborative DevOps culture are:

• Increased transparency and communication
• Shared responsibilities
• Autonomous teams
• Automation

For instance, through project and portfolio management, project managers can leverage this collaborative platform to share the latest updates and project status with team members.

Industry Cloud Platforms and the Rise of AWS 

Over 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms (ICPs) by 2027 – up from just 15% in 2023. Essentially, an ICP is an industry-specific cloud platform designed to provide SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS capabilities to industry verticals.

Gregor Petri of Gartner says “ICPs turn a cloud platform into a business platform, enabling an existing technology innovation tool to also serve as a business innovation tool.” ICPs deliver business value by accelerating cloud adoption through a host of innovative technologies like:

• Data fabrics
• Composable tooling
• Industry-specific packaged business tools

Expanding IT Service Management Beyond IT

The global IT spending in 2024 is likely to total over $5 trillion, thus marking an 8% increase from 2023 spending. The IT services industry segment will witness a double-digit growth in 2024. The increased spending on GenAI is driving this growth in IT spending.

John-David Lovelock of Gartner believes, that “organizations will continue to invest in AI and automation to increase their operational efficiency and to bridge skill gaps.”

In the realm of IT Service Management (ITSM), Generative AI will drive more operational efficiency in 2024. IT leaders will also leverage ITSM for enterprise service management (ESM). This includes enterprise-wide business functions like HR, customer support, finance, and sales & marketing.

As we hurtle towards 2024, the horizon shimmers with the promise of transformative tools and approaches. DevOps and cloud technologies will continue to spearhead this revolution, empowering CIOs to build agile, adaptable, and future-proof operational landscapes. At enreap, we stand as your trusted technology partner, ready to harness these trends and craft bespoke solutions that elevate your operational excellence. With expertise in Agile & DevOps, ITSM, and PPM, our DevOps consulting team empowers you to navigate this uncharted territory with confidence. Embark on your 2024 journey with enreap – let’s chart a course for operational brilliance, together.