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IT professionals felt the heat this summer as they kept networks humming along for remote workers on vacation, according to an Ipswitch survey of 239 IT professionals in the United States.
The report noted that over the summer months, most organizations see a significant expansion in the number of remote workers, which can make the job of a network manager or system administrator more difficult.
One third of all survey respondents see nearly half of their colleagues working remotely during the summer, with 42 percent of respondents citing problems with malfunctioning laptops, followed by network connectivity issues (32 percent) and poor application performance (16 percent).
“The job of IT professionals isn’t going to get any easier. We will continue to see this trend as IT is constantly faced with added pressures on the network and are tasked with doing more with less,” Jeff Loeb, chief marketing officer at Ipswitch, told eWEEK. “Whether it be the introduction of new devices, or an increase in employees working remotely, IT professionals have to keep up with constant changes so their business can continue to run smoothly. As seen by this data and supported by our last survey, IT is unfortunately burdened by a 24/7 mentality from employees, and IT professionals won’t see a break until the technology they use supports the complexity of their job.”
Loeb said the most surprising finding from the survey was what device IT professionals would eliminate from the network.
“With all the hype around wearable devices disrupting the network, only 10 percent of IT professionals said they would eliminate wearables, which may speak to the limited scope of this market to date,” he explained. “However, almost half of IT professionals would eliminate tablets, which speaks to the present-day issue at hand for IT.”
One quarter of respondents indicated that vacation time was more restricted for themselves and their teammates than other departments within their organization.
Even when taking vacation, more than a quarter of respondents (28 percent) admitted that they would be stressed over the state of their network while they are away.
In order to feel more empowered at work, 32 percent of IT professionals would like the ability to choose and buy technology, but with bring your own device (BYOD) programs a continuing presence in the workplace, that ability may not be coming around anytime soon.
“BYOD isn’t going away and is still the cause of many headaches for IT professionals,” Loeb said. “With the introduction of new devices and added features to existing ones, BYOD represents a loss of control for IT as the majority of personal devices aren’t being mindfully used by employees. IT professionals need to stay ahead of employee demand for wireless access and make sure they are setting policies to avoid disruption on the network.”