What Will Resonate Most with IT Professionals in 2016?

Aaron Kelly
Learn more about Progress

The end of the year is a busy time for coming together with family and friends and reflecting back on the year that was. However, it can also be a time for great stress and anxiety if you happen to be the member of a busy IT team. According to a new report by Ipswitch that polled 378 IT professionals across the US, we found there is as much New Year stress as there is joyfulness to go around in 2016.

IT teams can expect the new devices employees receive for the holidays to cause network chaos in the New Year. When asked what they believe to be the most pervasive “must-have” gadget in 2016, one-third (33 percent) said smartphones while 31 percent said wearable technology. Only 19 percent of IT professionals believe tablets will cause problems, followed by another 16 percent who thought laptops.

From employees working remotely to keeping up with new technology updates and tools, IT teams are left on-call and dealing with all the frustrations that transpire into the New Year. The report uncovered the changes IT professionals hope to make in 2016. The top resolutions for IT teams are:

■ Increasing the level of network security. The most common resolution was increasing the level of network security for more than half of IT professionals surveyed (51 percent). With analysts estimating the security industry generating approximately $70 billion in revenue per year, it’s not surprising that security ranks high among IT priorities. In 2016, IT teams must address security needs and be prepared to alleviate potential risks to their network, ensure secure data transfers and stay up-to-date on regulatory compliance guidelines.

■ Expand internal communication and customer satisfaction. The second most common resolution for IT teams in 2016 was expanding internal communication and customer satisfaction at 21 percent. As IT is restricted by budget and IT resources, often times tough decisions need to be made and the ability to not get caught up in internal deliberations is critical for IT success.

■ Receiving increased budget and resources. Coming in at the third most common resolution, 16 percent of IT professionals felt that receiving more budget and resources was top of their list for 2016. To manage the growing complexity of their organization while maintaining the same or smaller headcount and budget, powerful IT management tools are needed to save time and resources while also being cost efficient.

■ Smooth deployment of new technologies. Last, but not least, efficiently deploying new technology was important to 12 percent of IT professionals in the New Year. Staying apprised of new versions of technology and innovative tools will be an important resolution coming into 2016, as it will allow IT teams to better manage the process of deployment as well as increasing overall productivity for the entire organization.

Aaron Kelly is VP of Product Management at Ipswitch.

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What Will Resonate Most with IT Professionals in 2016?

Aaron Kelly
Learn more about Progress

The end of the year is a busy time for coming together with family and friends and reflecting back on the year that was. However, it can also be a time for great stress and anxiety if you happen to be the member of a busy IT team. According to a new report by Ipswitch that polled 378 IT professionals across the US, we found there is as much New Year stress as there is joyfulness to go around in 2016.

IT teams can expect the new devices employees receive for the holidays to cause network chaos in the New Year. When asked what they believe to be the most pervasive “must-have” gadget in 2016, one-third (33 percent) said smartphones while 31 percent said wearable technology. Only 19 percent of IT professionals believe tablets will cause problems, followed by another 16 percent who thought laptops.

From employees working remotely to keeping up with new technology updates and tools, IT teams are left on-call and dealing with all the frustrations that transpire into the New Year. The report uncovered the changes IT professionals hope to make in 2016. The top resolutions for IT teams are:

■ Increasing the level of network security. The most common resolution was increasing the level of network security for more than half of IT professionals surveyed (51 percent). With analysts estimating the security industry generating approximately $70 billion in revenue per year, it’s not surprising that security ranks high among IT priorities. In 2016, IT teams must address security needs and be prepared to alleviate potential risks to their network, ensure secure data transfers and stay up-to-date on regulatory compliance guidelines.

■ Expand internal communication and customer satisfaction. The second most common resolution for IT teams in 2016 was expanding internal communication and customer satisfaction at 21 percent. As IT is restricted by budget and IT resources, often times tough decisions need to be made and the ability to not get caught up in internal deliberations is critical for IT success.

■ Receiving increased budget and resources. Coming in at the third most common resolution, 16 percent of IT professionals felt that receiving more budget and resources was top of their list for 2016. To manage the growing complexity of their organization while maintaining the same or smaller headcount and budget, powerful IT management tools are needed to save time and resources while also being cost efficient.

■ Smooth deployment of new technologies. Last, but not least, efficiently deploying new technology was important to 12 percent of IT professionals in the New Year. Staying apprised of new versions of technology and innovative tools will be an important resolution coming into 2016, as it will allow IT teams to better manage the process of deployment as well as increasing overall productivity for the entire organization.

Aaron Kelly is VP of Product Management at Ipswitch.

Related Links

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For decades, enterprise networks were designed around a simple assumption: work happened inside the office. Applications lived in centralized data centers, employees connected through internal infrastructure, and security focused on protecting the perimeter that surrounded everything ... But the way organizations operate today bears little resemblance to that environment. Cloud platforms host critical applications, employees connect from homes and airports as often as they do from offices, and partners collaborate through shared systems that exist far beyond corporate walls. In short, the corporate network no longer resembles the environment it was designed to protect ...

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As an analyst who researches how IT organizations design, build, and operate their networks, I find that network data is a constant source of pain. Network teams struggle with data quality, fragmentation, authority, access, and trust. And these issues undermine everything they try to do. Here are the numbers: Only 45% of network teams are completely confident in the accuracy of their network source of truth, which documents the intent of their network ...

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Enterprise Cloud Observability: Choosing the Right Starting Point

Enterprises operate different combinations of workloads across cloud, hybrid and multicloud environments. For business-critical workloads, teams need to consider monitoring and observability early so they can detect health issues, investigate failures, and understand operational impact. Organizations place workloads on cloud platforms based on a combination of technical requirements, economics, existing dependencies, organizational standards, and business priorities. Their monitoring priorities therefore depend on what they operate and where those systems run. Those priorities will not look the same for every organization ...

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Top-performing businesses prioritize data-driven decision making, enabling leaders to move from intuition and gut feel towards evidence-based judgment. But that judgment is only sound when the data underpinning decisions is accurate. With incident management, data accuracy is particularly important. Long-term revenue, customer trust, and operational stability depend on high-quality data that enables teams to quickly identify and address the root cause of major incidents. Against this backdrop, governance becomes a critical endeavor to ensure the right data drives the right action ...

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