Though we still saw some layoffs hit the tech sector this month, it feels as if the spending drought is coming to an end. Companies are mindfully sticking their toes back in the water as AI initiatives mature. Now, attention is turning to longer-sighted goals: visibility, predictability, and stability.
The February must-reads speak to these trends, highlighting the business challenges and approaches that organizations can use to address them. Enjoy!
InfoWorld
What’s going on with cloud finops?
The FinOps Foundation shared its annual survey, which collects information about critical priorities, industry trends, and the direction of finops practices. In this analysis from David Linthicum, he notes: “Companies are more aware of ways to reduce cloud computing costs, such as purchasing resources ahead of need.” However, there is still some unpredictability ahead: “Organizations with a higher overall cloud spend tend to see AI/ML as a rapidly increasing source of variable costs that needs to be managed.”
CIO
5 tips for calculating business value in a multicloud world
Diving deeper into the finops challenge, Clint Boulton explores the complexities of IT investments and business value calculations. He reports, “...even with top-notch FinOps execution, organizations still find that up to 30% of all cloud spending is wasted, according to IDC. That’s in addition to the on-premises systems, private clouds, colocations and edge devices running across the IT estates.” Fortunately, he also offers a framework for tracking cost and value of IT services.
Silverlinings
Public cloud growth is back, baby!
A long and strong period of cloud cost optimization efforts last year caused a tumble in public cloud revenue rates. But Diane Goovaerts reports that cloud growth rates made a comeback in Q4 2023 and are expected to continue climbing in Q1 2024. Perhaps unsurprisingly, data from Synergy Research Group shows that Microsoft gained the most ground vis a vis other CSPs.
NetworkWorld
Remember that time the network went down? Denise Dubie rounds up seven significant outages from last year based on ThousandEyes’ annual roundup. The recap gives insights into how everything from small network changes to power supplies can cause global disruptions.
InformationWeek
Why Cyber Resilience May Be More Important Than Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is imperfect. That’s why, experts in this article say, focusing on cyber resilience may be even more important for organizational durability. Enhancing the organization’s network visibility and mean time to resolution for incidents can fortify business stability and reputation. As networking and security grow more tightly intertwined, this is a strong goal to keep in mind.
What do you think of these stories - any articles you loved that we missed? Are you seeing these trends play out in your organization?