Gartner Research

Modernizing
Infrastructure Platforms
and Operating Models
in Support of Digital
Foundations

Dennis Smith

7 June 2023
Modernizing Infrastructure Platforms and
Operating Models in Support of Digital Foundations
Published 7 June 2023 - ID G00788995 - 11 min read
By Analyst(s): Dennis Smith
Initiatives: I&O Platforms; Compose Platforms that Adapt to Business Needs

Adopting infrastructure platforms will have a significant

transformational impact on I&O operating models. I&O leaders
must institute fundamental changes that will enable platform
teams to improve I&O’s agility and customer focus.

Additional Perspectives

■ Summary Translation: Modernizing Infrastructure Platforms and Operating Models

in Support of Digital Foundations
(10 August 2023)

Overview
Key Findings
■ Many I&O metrics and SLAs are based on organizational and technology silos and
intended for I&O efficiency and resiliency. However, they are not tightly correlated
with true business outcomes and cause I&O to be viewed as an obstacle and not a
business partner.

■ Isolated infrastructure projects have caused I&O to focus more on incrementalism

than transformation, leading to I&O deployments that are costly to manage, resistant
to automation and difficult to change.

■ I&O workflow processes that requesters perceive as lengthy and unnecessary lead to
frustration and the view that I&O is an obstacle.

Recommendations
I&O leaders focused on leveraging platforms to transform operations should:

■ Improve the user experience by leveraging enterprise metrics that are centered on
performance and outcomes related to enterprise objectives.

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■ Strengthen the focus on enterprise digital needs by changing the operational model
from infrastructure projects to infrastructure products.

■ Drive agility and scale by adopting flexible self-service and pervasive automation.

Strategic Planning Assumption

By 2027, more than 75% of the Fortune 1000 companies will have formal infrastructure
platform organizations, up from less than 20% in 2023.

Introduction
Many organizations are looking to platforms (e.g., developer, DevOps) to enable their
digital strategies. But how to adopt a platform orientation within I&O is not always
apparent. Given platforms’ foundational role in an enterprise’s digital ambitions, getting
this wrong could have profoundly negative impacts, including moving I&O even further
away from building end-user trust and being a contributor to the wider enterprise digital
initiatives.

How can I&O leaders position platform teams for success in executing enterprise digital
strategies? This research explains how to adopt a platform orientation that positively
affects the consumption and delivery of IT services.

A high-level flow of an infrastructure platform group functioning within an enterprise

shows that platform activities are acutely driven by customer requirements, and that the
platform group curates infrastructure from internal (I&O infrastructure) and external (e.g.,
cloud service and infrastructure software providers) teams (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Platform Consumption and Delivery

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Analysis
Leverage Enterprise Metrics Centered on User Performance and Outcomes
Though enterprise requirements might be viewed as being far removed from I&O activity,
general enterprise-level business requirements should guide I&O as it commences its
journey and builds/selects/operates infrastructure platforms. These requirements most
often are funneled through interaction with delivery teams that directly support the
enterprise lines of business.

Operational metrics with a direct line of sight to business outcomes are referenced as
technology outcome-driven metrics — ODMs (see OKRs, KPIs and ODMs: How They’re
Different and When to Use Them). ODMs identify measurable technology operational
outcomes that directly impact business outcomes, reflecting the readiness of technology
stacks to support critical business processes and outcomes. The business outcomes they
support become drivers for priorities and investments in the technology, while failures of
the technology drive impacts to the supported business outcomes. Technology ODMs
should also be used to facilitate informed conversations with executives and key
stakeholders to influence priorities and investments. Similarly, business ODMs are
business metrics with a direct line of sight to business outcomes. See Figure 2 for an
example of how the metrics coincide and relate to enterprise objectives.

Figure 2. Performance and Outcome Focus

The above framework can help I&O to align with broader enterprise objectives. I&O must
be an enabler, and not an obstacle, by providing a business-enabling digital infrastructure
foundation. In doing so, general enterprise requirements that must be factored into the
design, selection, build and/or operation of every infrastructure platform include:

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■ Speed to market. The infrastructure platform must enable the different enterprise
end users and/or personas to operate at their desired speeds.

■ Scale. The infrastructure platform must efficiently meet increases and decreases in
end-user requirements.

■ Security. The infrastructure platform must protect enterprise assets from both
internal and external threats.

■ Cost-efficiency. The infrastructure platform must contribute to eliminating excess

infrastructure expenses.

■ Resiliency. The infrastructure platform must support enterprise-level availability

SLAs.

I&O leaders must consider the requirements across different personas, from novice
consumers to users who are sophisticated in not only their respective disciplines (for
example, application development, data and analytics) but also infrastructure (for
example, the ability to craft their own Kubernetes deployment manifests).

I&O leaders must pursue continual awareness of customer requirements, and iteratively
enhance and evolve the infrastructure and services offered as the requirements
change. This should include a multifaceted communication strategy (see Adopt
Platform Engineering to Improve the Developer Experience) around:

■ Platform awareness — ensuring that stakeholders know that the platform exists

■ Platform education — ensuring that users are trained in using the platform

■ Platform change or release awareness — alerting users of upcoming changes

■ Celebrating awareness — notifying stakeholders of situations where the platform

has enabled users to achieve their objectives

■ Prompting feedback — soliciting comments on the platform, both positive and

negative

Gartner clients often ask why their customers are not using the platforms they have built
for them. In many of these situations, the platforms either were not built in conjunction
with the end users or have not evolved as user requirements changed. Maintaining
continual awareness of end-user sentiment can help address this pitfall.

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Change the Operational Model From Infrastructure Projects to
Infrastructure Products
I&O must shift from an infrastructure project focus to managing infrastructure platforms
as products. Figure 3 depicts the differences in approaches (see Project to Product Is an
Essential Transformation for Product Managers).

Figure 3: Move From Projects to Platforms

The characteristics of a project mindset are:

■ Risk-averse: Big upfront, detailed requirements; gives the illusion of understanding

and control.

■ Technology-focused: Values technological advancement over customer value.

■ Solution-oriented: Focused on delivering a presumptive solution with detailed

definition.

■ Custom work: Resource-intensive efforts run very independent of one another; lots of
repeated similar lessons; automation/repeatability is an afterthought.

■ Driven by known value: Decisions are made upfront regarding the value to be
delivered or focused on.

■ Measured by business outcomes: Internally focused KPIs and objectives and key
results (OKRs) — revenue growth, market share and acquisition.

■ Restricted by time, scope and resources: Bound by inflexible expectations and

deadlines.

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A challenge with applying a project mindset to I&O is meeting I&O’s tactical requirements
but missing end-user requirements. This approach also moves I&O further away from
being a trusted partner with its stakeholders.

On the other hand, a product management mindset has the following characteristics:

■ Customer-focused: Values customer value over technological advancement.

■ Problem-oriented: Focused on solving a valuable customer problem, tested and

validated before execution begins.

■ Repeatability/automation: Efforts are coordinated. Opportunities to share, reuse,

automate and repeat prior work are proactively identified.

■ Driven by discovered value: Potential value is determined upfront, but as new data is
discovered, value propositions can change.

■ Measured by customer outcomes: Externally focused KPIs and OKRs — retention,

renewal and lifetime value.

■ Planned commitment to sustain: Different levels of support from all teams needed
across the entire life cycle.

A product focus, in which the product is an infrastructure platform that delivers services
that end users require, brings a sense of ownership that drives quality in the product. It
also spurs innovation and evolution of the product, and better aligns the I&O team with
meeting product staffing requirements. This focus on products requires I&O to collaborate
with end users during the crafting of services and as user requirements change.

End-user services that infrastructure platform products can deliver include:

■ Infrastructure provisioning. A self-service platform that enables point-and-click

provisioning and allows users to bring their own deployment manifest, which is
guided by guardrails within the platform.

■ Cloud optimization. A platform that enables cost management for hybrid, cloud-
based workloads (both on-premises and public cloud costs) as well as governance
of cloud resources across a set of cost-management parameters.

■ API management. A platform that enables management of all application/service-

to-application/service interactions.

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■ Application performance observability and management. A platform that enables
performance management of applications and their underlying infrastructure
components.

■ Kubernetes cluster management. An ability to configure and apply policy across

Kubernetes clusters installed throughout all compute environments.

■ Automation services. A platform that brings together automation capabilities for

previously siloed infrastructure domains. Here the different infrastructure teams can
use a common platform to develop unified resource definitions and blueprints that
allows consistent provisioning of infrastructure resources.

Service delivery is centered on a product-management orientation in which I&O takes

ownership of the infrastructure platforms. This includes all engineering and operational
aspects; marketing the platform, including soliciting and analyzing data on usage and
sentiment; and users being charged based on consumption in a transparent consumption
model.

Drive Agility and Scale Through Flexible Self-Service and Pervasive

Automation
Two pillars are foundational to infrastructure platforms that are proven to provide end-
user value (see Figure 4). The first is self-service, the user window into the infrastructure
platform. The second is automation, which has two aspects:

■ Automation embedded in the platform works in combination with the core

functionality provided by the platform.

■ Automation platforms where the core capability is providing automation services

(see Decision Point for Process Automation Platforms and Note 1).

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Figure 4: Driving Agility and Scale

Deploy a self-service capability where different personas using the infrastructure platform
are comfortable with their interface and level of access. This includes software
developers, business users and/or infrastructure personnel.

Automation must underpin all aspects of any infrastructure platform. The complexity and
scale of activity cannot be managed by manual efforts. Automation will not only enable
cost efficiencies but also allow workers responsible for the platforms to be redirected to
higher-value tasks, such as enhancing and evolving the platform. Automation will be
triggered by the initial end-user request for service and progress to provisioning and
ongoing operation of the deployed services. The goal is to eliminate all repetitive manual
activities within any workflow that produces a service.

Automation also plays a key role in the infrastructure platform’s ability to scale up and
down. Without this characteristic elasticity, availability and customer satisfaction will
suffer. Reactive detection and scaling is not viable for most current enterprise
requirements.

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Automation also makes platforms less fragile and more secure. The former is achieved
through the ability to rapidly act on events that can cause outages. The latter is due to
automation’s ability to identify and act rapidly on vulnerabilities and threats, as
automation is paired with observability that invokes automated remediation.

Self-service capabilities and automation have always been key pillars for the success of
general platforms (e.g., developer platforms). They must also be a core component for all
infrastructure platforms.

Evidence
This research is based on analyst interactions with clients and industry knowledge.

Note 1. Automation Approaches

Automation approaches include:

■ RPA automates tasks across both graphical interfaces and APIs. The ability to
manipulate the mouse and keyboard to operate a graphical user interface (GUI), in
addition to APIs, creates new automation opportunities and enables developers to
automate processes by automating user interactions with a familiar application
interface.

■ Test automation tools can be used as process automation tools, and clients are
increasingly looking at test automation tools as a way to avoid bringing in another
automation platform. Leveraging existing assets and skills for established test
automation can be cost-effective where the automation capabilities are adequate for
a candidate process. With the ability to do GUI-based automation and API-based
automation, test automation tools overlap with both RPA and integration platforms.

■ Built-in workflow engines refers to the capabilities provided by software as a service

(SaaS) and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software to automate processes,
usually related to their core function. For example, ServiceNow, a popular IT service
management (ITSM) platform, and Workday, a human resources SaaS solution, both
offer features that allow automation of common tasks within their domains.
Because of their focused set of functionality, these domain- or vendor-specific tools
produce highly reliable automations, often with reduced complexity.

■ Low-code application platforms (LCAP) have emerged as an option to reduce the

time and skills needed to develop new mobile and web applications. Many LCAP
vendors have extended their application platform to enable workflow-driven
applications and process automation.

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■ Orchestration frameworks are libraries that software developers can include in their
applications to gain access to powerful orchestration capabilities. Different types of
frameworks are suitable for different types of orchestration. Some have features
similar to a traditional business process management (BPM) tool, and others focus
on orchestrating high-volume calls from fine-grained microservices. Most of these
frameworks are open source, although some have supported or hosted options
available.

■ Integration platforms such as integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and

distributed integration platforms (DIPs) integrate systems through packaged API
abstractions, flow-control logic and data mapping tools that simplify integration.
Integration platforms are effective at orchestrating a series of interactions with
software systems, where no human involvement is required.

■ Modern intelligent business process management suites (iBPMSs) have embraced

the trend of low-code/no-code development. iBPMS tools often combine an agile
development environment with enterprisewide process discovery, visualization and
monitoring. This combination thrives in environments where process optimization,
not just automation, is a key goal. Many iBPMS products include the capabilities of
other platforms, such as low-code application development or RPA; however, RPA
and LCAP tools do not have the process monitoring and optimization features of an
iBPMS.

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Gartner, Inc. | G00788995 Page 10 of 11

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Gartner, Inc. | G00788995 Page 11 of 11

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