IT Pros are faced with many, many business technology drivers today, and the majority of them have an industry buzzword attached. Things like BYOD, CYOD, Hybrid Cloud, Private Cloud, and others have topped research and project lists for the best part of 2-3 years. Each technology has evolved over the course of its marketing lifetime and some have even diminished severely (BYOD), but until the last whisper is uttered, they will continue to inhabit some prominence in IT Pros professional lives.
Solarwinds has recently released survey results that show some extremely valuable numbers that highlight the technologies IT should focus much of their time on in 2014. The stats also show that IT Pros are a bit tentative in providing business direction advice, primarily because training is needed to get a solid understanding of how each technology can provide value to the business and in which areas.
Nearly 300 IT pros in the U.S. and Canada from a range of companies participated in the SolarWinds New IT Survey, and the findings reveal the need for IT pros to acquire new skillsets and improve their business insight, as well as the ¬-drivers of this shift in the IT pro’s role. Major findings from the survey include:
- Increasing infrastructure complexity has affected the majority of IT pros: 52 percent say it has “greatly affected” their responsibilities, with 42 percent stating it has “somewhat affected” their role.
- New skills are required to effectively manage increased complexity and disruptive technology: BYOx came in first when survey respondents were asked which emerging technology is most disruptive to business, followed by mobility, cloud computing and compliance. More than 50 percent of all IT pros view information security and cloud as the top skillsets that will grow in demand over the next three to five years.
- Technology is business and IT pros need to provide strategic advice: 99 percent of IT pros are given the opportunity to at least occasionally provide strategic business guidance on emerging technologies. To feel more empowered, more than half say they would need more training in their areas of responsibility.
