Trends Enterprise IT: Key Strategic Shifts and Predictions for 2025

Expert Insights from e360

As we look ahead to 2025, e360's team of experts has identified the key strategic shifts that will shape enterprise IT. Drawing from their extensive experience across infrastructure, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital workplace solutions, and cybersecurity, we present our key predictions for the year ahead.

1. AI Will See Both Integration and Practical Implementation

While AI integration is inevitable, our experts predict a nuanced evolution with both opportunities and challenges. Troy Couch, Director of Services for Digital Workplace at e360, observes: "It is a natural progression to move from experimentation to strategic integration as AI matures and businesses try to harness AI's full capabilities to drive competitive advantage and innovation." Brad Bussie, Chief Information Security Officer at e360, confirms this is "the top most asked for from clients as far as capabilities and for someone to help them understand it."

Al Solorzano, VP of Digital Workplace at e360, offers a crucial insight on implementation strategy: "There should be a conversation of buying an AI solution vs building an AI solution and the pros/cons that come with each approach during the envisioning stage of the desired outcomes."

Barry Hen, Field Chief Technology Officer at e360, notes: "Product and development teams will adopt and leverage AI solutions building out their use cases, then the security teams and infrastructure teams will race to catch up to find ways to secure and operationalize AI to harness its power safely."

Key trends we expect to see:

• Strategic focus on AI integration vs. building from scratch
• Enterprise-wide AI governance frameworks becoming mandatory
• Growth in specialized AI engineering teams
• Enhanced focus on measurable business outcomes
• Integration with existing enterprise applications

2. Security Will Shift to Identity-First Architecture

This prediction received unanimous validation across our expert panel. Brad Bussie puts it succinctly: "IAM is the new perimeter." Art Jannicelli, Director of Modern Infrastructure - Datacenter, reinforces this view, noting that "compromised access is far more commonly exploited than perimeter vulnerabilities."

Key developments will include:

• Zero Trust architectures becoming the default
• Consolidation of security tooling
• Enhanced audit and compliance capabilities
• AI-driven identity management
• Passwordless authentication adoption
• Just-in-time access with comprehensive auditing

3. Digital Workplace Evolution Accelerates

The digital workplace continues to evolve toward improved employee experience and efficiency. Nariman Ahmadi, Lead Solutions Architect at e360, notes that while progress is being made, "we still have long way for the full integration and collaboration between different Applications and product. It needs to be standardized." Al Solorzano predicts that "enterprise browsers will gain traction due to complexity of local endpoint security and cost of VDI solutions. It may not address every use case but there are large amounts of users who can use EB without the need of VDI or local endpoint security... while delivering a secure and great user experience."

Key trends:

• Enterprise browser adoption for streamlined security
• AI assistants for routine workplace tasks
• Employee technology satisfaction as a key metric
• Unified employee experience platforms
• Enhanced security with simplified infrastructure
• Focus on practical, proven technologies

4. Multi-Cloud Reality Faces Economic Pressures

Our experts see significant changes in cloud strategy driven by economic factors. Roy Douber, Sr. DevOps Expert and Observability Lead at e360, notes: "Most organizations aren't yet there from a multi cloud perspective, and I see this as being a multi year proposition. I agree that Cloud agnosticism and open source should gain a TON of traction."

Key developments:

• Increased focus on hybrid solutions
• Growth in cloud-agnostic and open-source solutions
• Enhanced focus on workload mobility
• Emphasis on cost optimization and FinOps
• Strategic balance between cloud and on-premises
• Rise of cloud-agnostic platforms

5. Enterprise IT Disruption from Multiple Fronts

Al Solorzano highlights that "VMware/Broadcom pricing will further drive alternative hypervisor conversations, cloud convos and hyperconverged convos." Art Jannicelli raises attention to broader market forces: "The new Tariffs and disruption of H1B system are going to have massive unpredictable outcomes on tech worldwide."

Key impacts:

• Acceleration in alternative infrastructure solutions
• Emphasis on vendor diversity
• Focus on cost optimization
• Growth in cloud-like experiences on commodity hardware
• Enhanced focus on workload mobility
• Preparation for supply chain disruptions

6. Observability Gains Critical Importance

With AI accelerating software development, Roy Douber explains: "Observability will take a more prominent place in the value chain. Software is being developed much more quickly with AI, but with more faults, and often, with code that the engineers themselves wouldn't write or think through. That said, we'll need better tooling as code is now being deployed more quickly than ever before."

Key trends:

• Enhanced monitoring and observability tools
• Integration of AI in testing and quality assurance
• Focus on code quality and reliability
• Automated testing and validation
• Real-time performance monitoring
• Predictive issue detection

Looking Ahead

The journey through 2025 will require organizations to:

• Make strategic choices between building and buying AI solutions
• Consolidate and simplify security tooling
• Prepare for major industry disruptions
• Balance innovation with practical implementation
• Focus on cost optimization across all technology investments
• Invest in observability and quality assurance

Success will come to organizations that can navigate these changes while maintaining robust security, governance, and operational excellence.

e360 helps organizations navigate these transitions with expertise across modern infrastructure, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital workplace solutions, and cybersecurity. Contact us to learn how we can help your organization prepare for these emerging trends.