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5 Scenarios That Can Wreak Havoc on an IT Pro's Vacation

Glenn Gray

Whether on vacation, working from home or on-the-go, an IT professional's work is rarely ever done. SolarWinds outlines five of the top IT challenges an IT pro may encounter when working remotely and offers practical tips for a real-time resolution.

1. End user's Active Directory account locked out

This scenario plays out every day in organizations across the globe and it's an easy one to manage if you are in the office or at least at home near your computer. However, when an IT pro is enjoying some summer fun at a local lake or beach, this can be a tough one to manage. With the proper remote support tools, this issue is an easy one to fix no matter where they are.

2. End user needs help using a business-critical application

All IT pros receive requests for training disguised as support tickets. It's not uncommon for a Sys Admin or Help Desk Tech to spend a good portion of their day on activities that would be better categorized as training rather than support. Imagine a scenario in which an end user's inability to perform a simple task in a CRM solution is slowing sales. It's an easy one to manage while an IT pro is in the office, but when they're on vacation it can mean training by phone with no visual clues as to what the end user is doing.

3. Email server goes offline

An email server going offline is a serious situation that can be greatly complicated when an IT pro is away from the computer. Being alerted to this problem is hard enough since so many alerting systems rely on email systems to relay alerts, but troubleshooting the issue while away from a computer is next to impossible without the right systems in place.

4. Lost files or folders

This is another common scenario that is easy to resolve while in the office, but can be tricky while away. Imagine one of the organization's C-suite executives lost track of an important file just before an analyst call. With the right remote administration tool, it's a situation that can be swiftly addressed and make an IT pro look like a hero ... even when relaxing by a pool.

5. Entire IT staff is Out of the Office

If the IT staff happens to be simultaneously out of the office, let the help desk software be the wingman. Balance the load according to skill sets when IT staffers are on vacation or away at a conference to ensure that the right person is assigned to work on appropriate tickets to minimize downtime, maintain end user satisfaction and to avoid any (unnecessary) vacation interruptions. When choosing help desk software for an organization, look for one that's capable of setting up forwarding rules to get tickets to the right resources based on the type of work expected.

Best Practices for Managing IT Remotely

A dreaded part of any IT pro's vacation is the alert, email or phone call from the office that an IT emergency has occurred. An IT pro can make the most of his hard-earned R&R by considering a few Remote IT Management best practices:

- Have a strong foundation to continuously monitor and manage activity at all times, including new applications, servers and network devices that may be added while IT staff are away.

- Assign and define rules for automated help desk ticket routing.

- Establish a notification and prioritizing system, including SMS-enabled alerting to receive messages directly to a mobile device.

- Invest in IT management tools that provide access and a means to manage systems remotely from a mobile device, including sharing the end user's screen, remote desktop support and troubleshooting.

Glenn Gray is Product Marketing Manager - Desktop Management at SolarWinds.

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

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5 Scenarios That Can Wreak Havoc on an IT Pro's Vacation

Glenn Gray

Whether on vacation, working from home or on-the-go, an IT professional's work is rarely ever done. SolarWinds outlines five of the top IT challenges an IT pro may encounter when working remotely and offers practical tips for a real-time resolution.

1. End user's Active Directory account locked out

This scenario plays out every day in organizations across the globe and it's an easy one to manage if you are in the office or at least at home near your computer. However, when an IT pro is enjoying some summer fun at a local lake or beach, this can be a tough one to manage. With the proper remote support tools, this issue is an easy one to fix no matter where they are.

2. End user needs help using a business-critical application

All IT pros receive requests for training disguised as support tickets. It's not uncommon for a Sys Admin or Help Desk Tech to spend a good portion of their day on activities that would be better categorized as training rather than support. Imagine a scenario in which an end user's inability to perform a simple task in a CRM solution is slowing sales. It's an easy one to manage while an IT pro is in the office, but when they're on vacation it can mean training by phone with no visual clues as to what the end user is doing.

3. Email server goes offline

An email server going offline is a serious situation that can be greatly complicated when an IT pro is away from the computer. Being alerted to this problem is hard enough since so many alerting systems rely on email systems to relay alerts, but troubleshooting the issue while away from a computer is next to impossible without the right systems in place.

4. Lost files or folders

This is another common scenario that is easy to resolve while in the office, but can be tricky while away. Imagine one of the organization's C-suite executives lost track of an important file just before an analyst call. With the right remote administration tool, it's a situation that can be swiftly addressed and make an IT pro look like a hero ... even when relaxing by a pool.

5. Entire IT staff is Out of the Office

If the IT staff happens to be simultaneously out of the office, let the help desk software be the wingman. Balance the load according to skill sets when IT staffers are on vacation or away at a conference to ensure that the right person is assigned to work on appropriate tickets to minimize downtime, maintain end user satisfaction and to avoid any (unnecessary) vacation interruptions. When choosing help desk software for an organization, look for one that's capable of setting up forwarding rules to get tickets to the right resources based on the type of work expected.

Best Practices for Managing IT Remotely

A dreaded part of any IT pro's vacation is the alert, email or phone call from the office that an IT emergency has occurred. An IT pro can make the most of his hard-earned R&R by considering a few Remote IT Management best practices:

- Have a strong foundation to continuously monitor and manage activity at all times, including new applications, servers and network devices that may be added while IT staff are away.

- Assign and define rules for automated help desk ticket routing.

- Establish a notification and prioritizing system, including SMS-enabled alerting to receive messages directly to a mobile device.

- Invest in IT management tools that provide access and a means to manage systems remotely from a mobile device, including sharing the end user's screen, remote desktop support and troubleshooting.

Glenn Gray is Product Marketing Manager - Desktop Management at SolarWinds.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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