Top 10 IT strategy takeaways to carry into the new year

As organizations plan for the year ahead, IT leaders are navigating a familiar set of challenges: increasing cyber risk, rising cloud costs, evolving infrastructure demands, and the accelerating impact of AI.

Throughout the year, Flexential hosted expert-led webinars exploring these topics from a practical, real-world perspective. To help you focus on what matters most, we’ve curated the top 10 IT strategy takeaways from our most-watched sessions—covering cybersecurity, cloud optimization, colocation, and AI-ready infrastructure.

If you’re shaping your IT roadmap for the new year, these are the insights worth revisiting.

1. AI innovation without governance increases risk

AI adoption is accelerating, but innovation without guardrails can expose organizations to security, compliance, and reputational risk. This session outlines practical approaches to AI governance that help teams move fast while maintaining trust and accountability.

Watch: AI governance simplified: Balancing innovation, security, and trust

2. Understanding attacker behavior strengthens cyber defense

Cybercriminals are more organized and sophisticated than ever. Former FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza shares firsthand insights into how attackers think, where organizations are most vulnerable, and which proactive steps meaningfully reduce risk.

Watch: Inside the mind of a cybercriminal: FBI secrets to protect your business

3. AI resiliency starts with data and architecture

AI initiatives often fail when data management and infrastructure resilience are treated as afterthoughts. Experts discuss lessons learned from the AI frontlines and how organizations are building secure, scalable foundations for long-term success.

Watch: Lessons from the AI frontlines: Creating a secure, AI-powered roadmap

4. Cloud cost optimization is now a leadership priority

Cloud spend without visibility leads to waste. This session explores proven FinOps practices that help organizations forecast accurately, eliminate inefficiencies, and align cloud and hybrid IT costs with business outcomes.

Watch: Let’s talk FinOps: Smarter cloud and hybrid IT cost optimization

5. Cloud strategy can evolve without starting over

Fragmented tools, uncontrolled workloads, and unpredictable costs don’t require a complete rebuild. Learn how IT leaders are simplifying operations and moving toward a cloud-smart strategy—without ripping and replacing existing environments.

Watch: From cloud chaos to cloud smart: How to evolve your cloud strategy

6. VMware changes demand strategic reassessment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 introduces new capabilities and important shifts. This session breaks down how organizations are modernizing VMware environments and turning platform changes into a strategic advantage.

Watch: Unlocking value in the new VMware era

7. Colocation bridges the gap between DIY and hyperscale

For growing IT teams, colocation offers a practical middle ground—providing scalability, security, and operational simplicity without the capital expense of building and managing a data center.

Watch: Too small for a data center—too big for the closet? Colocation answers for growing IT teams

8. AI is reshaping infrastructure and data center design

AI workloads are redefining performance, density, power, and cooling requirements. This session explores the infrastructure trends IT leaders must consider to support AI today and into the future.

Watch: The AI effect: The infrastructure trends that will power the future

9. AI readiness requires more than compute

True AI readiness goes beyond GPUs. Experts from Flexential, DigitalOcean, and the University of Pennsylvania discuss infrastructure benchmarks, resilience strategies, and architectural planning needed to support AI-driven growth.

Watch: Benchmarking AI infrastructure readiness

10. Tomorrow’s infrastructure decisions must happen now

AI growth is outpacing traditional procurement and planning cycles. This session explores capacity constraints, planning timelines, and why early infrastructure decisions are critical for future success.

Watch: AI at scale: Why tomorrow’s data center starts now

Carry these insights into the year ahead

Modern IT strategy is no longer about isolated decisions. Cloud, security, data, infrastructure, and AI are deeply interconnected—and success depends on planning holistically. Revisit these sessions on demand and use the insights to inform your strategy for the year ahead.

Explore the full Flexential webinar library

Frequently asked questions

What are the most important IT strategy priorities for the new year?

Most IT roadmaps for the new year focus on four priorities: improving cyber resiliency, optimizing cloud and hybrid IT costs, modernizing infrastructure platforms (including VMware environments), and preparing data center capacity for AI and high-density workloads.

Which webinar should I watch first if I’m focused on cybersecurity?

Start with Inside the mind of a cybercriminal: FBI secrets to protect your business for practical insights on attacker behavior and threat patterns. Then watch AI governance simplified for guidance on reducing AI-related risk while maintaining trust.

What is FinOps, and why does it matter for cloud cost optimization?

FinOps is an operating model that helps teams manage cloud and hybrid IT spend with better visibility, accountability, and forecasting. It matters because cloud costs can grow quickly without governance, and FinOps helps organizations reduce waste while aligning spend to business outcomes.

How can organizations improve cloud strategy without rebuilding everything?

Many teams can move from “cloud chaos” to “cloud smart” by simplifying operations, improving workload governance, and increasing cost and performance visibility, rather than re-architecting from scratch.

What should IT leaders consider in the new VMware era?

IT leaders should evaluate platform changes, modernization paths, and operational impact, then align decisions to business goals such as resilience, agility, and cost control.

When does colocation make sense for growing organizations?

Colocation makes sense when IT outgrows on-prem space or “closet IT,” but building a full data center isn’t practical. It can provide scalable power, security, and operational support without major capital investment.

What does “AI infrastructure readiness” mean?

AI infrastructure readiness refers to having the architecture, resilience, networking, power/cooling capacity, and data management capabilities needed to support AI workloads reliably and securely at scale.

Do you need GPUs to be “AI-ready”?

Not always. Many organizations can start with AI planning by benchmarking infrastructure, improving data pipelines, strengthening security and governance, and validating capacity and resiliency requirements before major compute investments.

What are the biggest infrastructure trends driven by AI?

Key AI-driven trends include higher density requirements, increased power and cooling demand, greater emphasis on network performance, and tighter integration between data management, security, and resiliency.

Why do AI capacity and data center planning need to happen earlier now?

AI growth is outpacing traditional procurement cycles, and capacity constraints can limit how quickly organizations can scale. Earlier planning helps teams align timelines, secure capacity, and avoid delays when demand spikes.