5 infrastructure tech trends to watch for in 2023

As 2023 unfolds, there are five areas of infrastructure technology that will play a big part in shaping the year ahead. Read on to learn why new cloud requirements, platform architectures, essential technologies, controlled automation, and artificial intelligence for IT security need to be on organizations’ watch lists.

1. New requirements for multicloud, hybrid cloud, and the edge will drive buying decisions

Multicloud and hybrid IaaS adoption will continue to grow, and unified management, automation, and monitoring will become core requirements for companies evaluating multicloud and/or hybrid cloud solutions.

Multicloud and edge computing adoption is accelerating quickly, while architectures and services continue to be distributed across more data centers—on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge. As a result, establishing a standard in terms of management, automation, monitoring, and deployment of these architectures will be essential.

2. Platform architectures will evolve past x86

After years of x86-64 platform architecture ubiquity, Arm architecture is steadily beginning to present opportunities to reduce energy costs in server, cloud, and edge environments. Being able to run services on cheaper and more powerful hardware can significantly change the hardware game.

New requirements will arise for a common software solution (kernel, libraries, and applications) that is able to work on both platform architectures and grant the same service level. ISVs will need to add Arm support to their applications.

3. Organizations’ IT spend will focus on technologies that are essential to their business

2023 will be the first year in the cloud era in which companies will look carefully at costs. Organizations will closely evaluate what technologies and services are essential to the business. Non-essentials and add-ons that increase costs will be dismissed. The mantra being, "Just give me what I need, at the lowest cost, with the best service level."

"Do one thing and do it best" will be another de-facto statement that will drive decision making. Companies won't be interested and won't have the time, resources, or capital to explore further product or service capabilities, as they focus on core requirements and how to address them easily and quickly.

4. The next era of automation will prioritize control

With the growth of distributed and multicloud environments, managing complex infrastructure topologies in an efficient, standard, and secure way has become a top priority. This is driving continued growth in infrastructure automation, along with the introduction of "controlled" automation as a key requirement. Organizations will evolve from the mindset of "let's automate it" to "let's add this to our automation logic."

Automating is one of the most important issues in IT today but at the same time, control is necessary. This requirement will be met by more and more companies because "just automating" is no longer enough.

Infrastructure automation in 2023 will move toward a defined standard with each component following the standard. Requirements for automation will include quick feedback, control, audit, security, and integration with other services that are part of IT administration.

5. Artificial intelligence will play a major role in IT security

Artificial intelligence (AI) will drive both greater threats to infrastructure and better defenses, taking much of day-to-day security operations out of the hands of administrators.

Cyberattacks are increasingly using artificial intelligence to mount smarter, more automated attacks. AI tools make it possible for attackers to learn more about how a defender prevents attacks, which can enable them to identify and exploit previously unknown weaknesses.

However, AI is also coming to the aid of infrastructure defenders. AI can help with the identification of threats that would otherwise go undetected; further automate threat response; improve the efficiency of security operations; and reduce security costs.

This is a continuing escalation in the age-old cyberbattle. Enterprises are encouraged to embrace AI as part of their infrastructure security to stay ahead of wrongdoers.

Conclusion

As companies continue to refine their infrastructure strategies, the abundance of cloud services, platform options, security and other requirements can create a puzzle of great complexity. This complexity will need to be managed with automation, control, auditing, integration, and reporting in a centralized fashion, which will help define the company’s standards, no matter what deployment mode, on-cloud, or on-premises. Solutions that can bring the puzzle pieces into a cohesive whole will be more accessible than in the past, with some IT due diligence.

For a jump start, here are some resources:

• Oracle Linux
• Oracle Linux Automation Manager
• Oracle Ksplice
• Automating security with Oracle Linux Automation Manager and Ksplice