In 2026, enterprises are moving towards a hybrid-by-design infrastructure strategy, balancing public cloud, private cloud, on-premises, and edge environments based on various factors like cost, performance, and compliance. This shift reflects a departure from the traditional 'cloud-first' approach, with organizations focusing on workload-right placement and adopting new architectures to optimize efficiency.

Cost management in enterprise IT is evolving into a continuous operational discipline known as FinOps. This approach expands beyond just cloud billing to encompass AI infrastructure costs and emphasizes engineering accountability for efficiency. By 2027, organizations may face up to a 30% increase in underestimated AI infrastructure costs, making clear visibility into spending essential for justifying future investments.

Resilience is becoming a core design principle in IT operations rather than just a backup plan. Enterprises are embedding resilience into their infrastructure design, incident response workflows, and overall operations. This proactive approach acknowledges that disruptions are inevitable, leading to investments in systems that can recover quickly and degrade gracefully, rather than aiming for unrealistic uptime perfection.