Machine learning-optimised stacks, container-first architectures and DevOps for both software and hardware are among the key trends redefining enterprise IT infrastructure, according to a new report from McKinsey.

The piece, authored by Arul Elumalai, Kara Sprague, Sid Tandon, and Lareina Yee, looks at what is changing and how companies need to fight back.  

Many of these have frequently been covered by this publication; some, like the public cloud going mainstream, are long overdue. Yet there is an interesting titbit here. Given the long-established leadership of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google in public cloud, McKinsey argues that their entrenched dominance will mean only organisations with ‘significant capital investment capabilities’ will be able to compete in future. The article offers Alibaba as a potential suitor; the Chinese firm said last month its cloud business “continued to defy gravity”, while in September Gartner placed the company in third place for public cloud IaaS.

Other predictions which readers will have heard before – but are still invaluable – revolve around cybersecurity and increased usage of open source offerings. Examples of how the latter is gaining traction in the enterprise involves TensorFlow, Google’s machine learning system first launched in 2015. The customer list today is impressive, McKinsey notes, from Airbnb, to eBay, and Qualcomm.

It is the emerging technologies, however, which take the honours. According to McKinsey, B2B applications will account for almost 70% of the value coming from the Internet of Things (IoT) in 10 years’ time; and IoT business applications are now ready for adoption. Elsewhere, the article notes how the new DevOps business model is moving beyond app development to integrate operations and IT infrastructure, while artificial intelligence is ‘delivering benefits to companies across industries.’

“The scale of disruption in the technology infrastructure landscape is unprecedented, creating huge opportunities and risks for industry players and their customers,” the report concludes. “Executives at technology infrastructure companies must drive growth by transforming their portfolios and rethinking their go-to-market strategies.

“They should also build the fundamental capabilities needed for long-term success, including those related to digitisation, analytics, and agile development.”

You can read the full piece here.