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IT Pros Want AI and AIOps but Are Concerned About Data Quality

Despite a near-unanimous desire to adopt AI technology, very few respondents have confidence in their organization's readiness to integrate AI, pointing to limitations in data and infrastructure and security concerns, according to the 2024 IT Trends Report, AI: Friend or Foe?, based on a survey of nearly 700 IT professionals conducted by SolarWinds.

The report found that while IT pros have a growing interest in embracing AI technology, with nine out of ten already using or planning to use AI, concerns remain about data quality, database infrastructure readiness, and — above all else — security and privacy.

"While talk of AI has dominated the industry, IT leaders and teams recognize the outsize risks of the still-developing technology, heightened by the rush to build AI quickly rather than smartly," said Krishna Sai, SVP, Technology and Engineering at SolarWinds. "With the proper internal systems in place and by prioritizing security, fairness, and transparency while building AI, these technologies can serve as a valuable advisor and coworker to overworked teams, but this survey shows that IT pros need to be consulted as their companies invest in AI."

Overall, the industry's sentiment reflects cautious optimism about AI despite the obstacles. Almost half of IT professionals (46%) want their company to move faster in implementing AI despite costs, challenges, and concerns, but only 43% are confident that their company's databases can meet the increased needs of AI. Moreover, even fewer (38%) trust the quality of data or training used in developing AI technologies.

The report unveiled significant insights into IT professionals' perspectives on AI, including:

AIOps Drives Efficiency and Productivity

IT pros cited AIOps as the AI technology that will have the most significant positive impact on their role (31%), ranking above large language models and machine learning. More than a third of respondents (38%) said their companies already use AI to make IT operations more efficient and effective.


Source: SolarWinds

Distrust of Data Powering AI

Only 38% of respondents are very trusting of the data quality and training used in AI technologies, and rank data quality as a major barrier to AI adoption, second only to security and privacy risks. Because of this, today's IT teams see AI as an advisor (33%) and a sidekick (20%) rather than a solo decision-maker.

Privacy and Security Concerns Are Barriers to AI Adoption

Respondents overwhelmingly named privacy and security concerns as the most significant barrier to AI integration. When asked about their challenges with AI, four out of 10 (41%) respondents said they've had negative experiences. Of those, privacy concerns (48%) and security risks (43%) were most often cited as the reasons why.

IT Pros Call for Government Regulation

IT pros specifically call for increased government regulations to address security (72%) and privacy (64%). More than half of respondents also believe government regulation should play a role in combating misinformation, as training AI models — including data quality — is a matter of both ethics and security.

To ensure successful and secure AI adoption, IT pros recognize that organizations must develop thorough policies on ethics, data privacy, and compliance, pointing to ethical considerations and concerns about job displacement as other significant barriers to AI adoption. The report found that more than a third of organizations (35.6%) still don't have these policies in place to guide proper AI implementation.

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IT Pros Want AI and AIOps but Are Concerned About Data Quality

Despite a near-unanimous desire to adopt AI technology, very few respondents have confidence in their organization's readiness to integrate AI, pointing to limitations in data and infrastructure and security concerns, according to the 2024 IT Trends Report, AI: Friend or Foe?, based on a survey of nearly 700 IT professionals conducted by SolarWinds.

The report found that while IT pros have a growing interest in embracing AI technology, with nine out of ten already using or planning to use AI, concerns remain about data quality, database infrastructure readiness, and — above all else — security and privacy.

"While talk of AI has dominated the industry, IT leaders and teams recognize the outsize risks of the still-developing technology, heightened by the rush to build AI quickly rather than smartly," said Krishna Sai, SVP, Technology and Engineering at SolarWinds. "With the proper internal systems in place and by prioritizing security, fairness, and transparency while building AI, these technologies can serve as a valuable advisor and coworker to overworked teams, but this survey shows that IT pros need to be consulted as their companies invest in AI."

Overall, the industry's sentiment reflects cautious optimism about AI despite the obstacles. Almost half of IT professionals (46%) want their company to move faster in implementing AI despite costs, challenges, and concerns, but only 43% are confident that their company's databases can meet the increased needs of AI. Moreover, even fewer (38%) trust the quality of data or training used in developing AI technologies.

The report unveiled significant insights into IT professionals' perspectives on AI, including:

AIOps Drives Efficiency and Productivity

IT pros cited AIOps as the AI technology that will have the most significant positive impact on their role (31%), ranking above large language models and machine learning. More than a third of respondents (38%) said their companies already use AI to make IT operations more efficient and effective.


Source: SolarWinds

Distrust of Data Powering AI

Only 38% of respondents are very trusting of the data quality and training used in AI technologies, and rank data quality as a major barrier to AI adoption, second only to security and privacy risks. Because of this, today's IT teams see AI as an advisor (33%) and a sidekick (20%) rather than a solo decision-maker.

Privacy and Security Concerns Are Barriers to AI Adoption

Respondents overwhelmingly named privacy and security concerns as the most significant barrier to AI integration. When asked about their challenges with AI, four out of 10 (41%) respondents said they've had negative experiences. Of those, privacy concerns (48%) and security risks (43%) were most often cited as the reasons why.

IT Pros Call for Government Regulation

IT pros specifically call for increased government regulations to address security (72%) and privacy (64%). More than half of respondents also believe government regulation should play a role in combating misinformation, as training AI models — including data quality — is a matter of both ethics and security.

To ensure successful and secure AI adoption, IT pros recognize that organizations must develop thorough policies on ethics, data privacy, and compliance, pointing to ethical considerations and concerns about job displacement as other significant barriers to AI adoption. The report found that more than a third of organizations (35.6%) still don't have these policies in place to guide proper AI implementation.

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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 ...

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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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

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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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...