Nothing has changed in businesses in recent years so much as reliance on digital technology and software. This places a growing pressure on IT departments. According to information from SolarWinds, 89 per cent of IT professionals report troubleshooting to be their major occupation, beyond maintenance or research.
Part of the problem is simply a case of user expectations. As software becomes a part of daily life, users expect it to work faultlessly – or else be repaired immediately. “This has always been a problem,” says Scott Johnson, senior systems administrator, infrastructure at LogixHealth, “The difference now is there is more demand for faster revolution.”
He notes there is potential for lost productivity and thus revenue when software fails: “Maybe now they [user] are looking on Facebook or LinkedIn and lose track of their primary object.”
While attention to productivity is admirable, it is creating a scenario in which IT staff feel overwhelmed in dealing with increasing demand for support. As Johnson notes: “Applications affect nearly every aspect of our world […] Ultimately, IT will be held responsible for application performance, regardless of whether the application resides on premise or in the cloud. Its no longer just about if an application is working; it’s about that application working to end user expectations.”
While a business could hire new IT staff to cope with these substantial demands, this creates a rolling expense. Instead, Johnson advocates upgrading the tools that IT professionals are given. “There are many different approaches: the best method is the dashboard, providing support with visual information to view IT performance in real-time.
“The problem is not a lack of hands, but a lack of correct monitoring software,” he says.
The second most important thing is deployment: that IT staff deal with a new problem ASAP and have the appropriate knowledge. Employees can be helped out here by being informed about who the correct person to go to is.
If a business does not act both parties could be held back: employees with software working at only a fraction of efficiency; and overworked IT staff, unable to keep up with this new, exponential demand.
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