SolarWinds released the results of the second in a series of surveys aimed at revealing the heart of Systems Administrators, this time focused on the UK.
The UK-focused results share many similarities with the US survey released last week. For example, despite being saddled with longer working hours, increased responsibility and feeling under resourced and underappreciated, systems administrators (sysadmins) in the UK, like their colleagues across the pond, express strong job satisfaction and high confidence in their employer's leadership.
These results are part of a wide-ranging global survey carried out this past October, including more than 400 UK-based sysadmins, in an effort to measure the evolving nature of this critical IT role.
The survey captured sysadmins' attitudes on both a personal and professional level, from their enjoyment and frustrations of their jobs to their favorite after-work hobbies and pop culture heroes.
Key findings include:
- Rising job demands: 83 percent of sysadmins are feeling some level of increased pressure in their jobs. Contributing factors include more responsibility and demands on their time (84 percent), increased system complexity (79 percent) and doing more with less (78 percent). A wide majority are spending more time at work (79 percent), with nearly half (44 percent) indicating they spend a significant amount of their free time completing work tasks.
- Steady career satisfaction: The increasing demands don't appear to be dampening job enthusiasm. 65 percent of respondents said they are more satisfied with their jobs, seeing additional career path opportunities, while 57 percent said they receive consistent training to help develop new skills. However, half of respondents identified budgets and money as the scarcest resources in their organizations, with as many as one third saying that they are not convinced that they have access to adequate tools to perform effectively. A further 14 percent feel they are able to complete all their tasks within normal office hours.
- High company confidence: Sysadmins are highly optimistic about their employers, showing belief that 2013 will be a growth year for their companies (65 percent) and that their IT departments are in a better position this year than in the past year (69 percent). Trust runs high in their IT department leadership (74 percent) and their senior/executive leadership at their companies (71 percent).
- Lacking broader appreciation: Outside of the IT department, sysadmins feel a bit misunderstood. 69 percent agree that most of their company's employees don't understand what they do or the value they bring to the business. Almost half (47 percent) didn't feel appreciated enough, while only 15 percent felt highly appreciated.
- Job likes and dislikes: Sysadmins feel the need to be part of the solution. The top three cited job attributes were solving problems (71 percent), helping users (55 percent) and thinking on their feet (49 percent). There were far fewer overall respondents expressing frustrations, but two of the top three issues cited were money related, including too little pay (27 percent), increasing workloads and responsibilities (13 percent) and too much to do (12 percent).
Complete survey results can be found on Slideshare
Infographic on the data can be found on SolarWinds Whiteboard blog
"This survey shows that systems administrators are self-reliant, resilient and optimistic - all qualities that are important in a profession that is defined by the ability to deal with complexity and challenging situations," said Kevin Thompson, CEO, SolarWinds.
"Despite increased demands, they are rising to the challenge and feel confident in the future of their departments and the leadership of their companies. As we continue to compare these IT pros across geographies, it is interesting to see how much they share in common -- from their confidence in their employers to their preference for Android over iPhones."
The survey also revealed several interesting findings about how sysadmins view themselves - particularly compared to their US counterparts - and what they enjoy doing in their free time, including:
- Who they are: Just 53 percent of UK sysadmins see themselves as friendly, compared with their US counterparts (94 percent). Again, only 51 percent of UK sysadmins view themselves as compassionate compared to a majority in the US (92 percent). UK sysadmins rated themselves less than half as funny (40 percent vs. 91 percent) and fun-loving (41 percent vs. 92 percent) than those in the US. They seemingly don't work as hard or as smart as US sysadmins either, with just 52 percent of UK respondents rating themselves as hardworking vs. the US (94 percent), and an even smaller number think they're intellectual (39 percent) compared with a huge 92 percent of US sysadmins.
- What technology they use: A slim majority of UK sysadmins prefer Android phones (36 percent) over iPhones (33 percent) while 15 percent use Blackberry. An overwhelming majority are PC users (81 percent) over Mac users (13 percent).
- What they watch: Sysadmin's top three all-time geek/sci-fi TV shows are The X-Files (17 percent), Star Trek (16 percent), and The Simpsons (14 percent) and, while their favorite sci-fi movie franchises are Lord of the Rings (22 percent), Star Wars (19 percent) and Star Trek (14 percent).
- What they like: Their tipple of choice is wine (19 percent), their favorite superhero is Batman (20 percent) and their top all-time video game is Call of Duty (29 percent).
Complete survey results can be found on Slideshare
Infographic on the data can be found on SolarWinds Whiteboard blog
The Latest
As enterprises accelerate their cloud adoption strategies, CIOs are routinely exceeding their cloud budgets — a concern that's about to face additional pressure from an unexpected direction: uncertainty over semiconductor tariffs. The CIO Cloud Trends Survey & Report from Azul reveals the extent continued cloud investment despite cost overruns, and how organizations are attempting to bring spending under control ...
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 ...
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 ...
