With Their Jobs Becoming Ever More Complex, IT Pros Deserve Their Day

The third Tuesday of every September is IT Professionals Day. Here’s a look at all they do that make them deserving of a day to honor them.

More users are connecting a diverse set of electronic devices, including those personally owned, to corporate networks. Forty-seven percent of employed North American users say they connect more devices, whether company or personally owned, to corporate networks than they did 10 years ago, at an average of three more devices per user.

And, in fact, 47 percent of users say they indeed do connect more personally owned devices to corporate networks than they did 10 years ago—an average of two more per user.

The technology users rely on increasingly is outside their employers’ on-premises infrastructure, including cloud-based applications and work-related resources leveraged beyond the office. Sixty percent of IT professionals globally say their organizations permit/facilitate the use of cloud-based applications; 71 percent also estimate that users at least occasionally use non-IT-sanctioned cloud-based applications.

Additionally, 53 percent of users say they use cloud-based applications—both IT-facilitated and non-IT-sanctioned—while at work.

Forty-nine percent of users say they regularly use work-related applications outside the office, on either company-owned or personally owned devices.

Despite the increase in their reliance on technology often outside the control of their employers’ IT professionals, users still hold IT accountable for that technology’s performance. Sixty-two percent of IT professionals say the expectation to support users’ personally owned devices connected to corporate networks is significantly greater than it was 10 years ago, while 56 percent of users say they expect their employers’ IT professionals to ensure the performance of these devices.

Forty-three percent of IT professionals say users expect the same time to resolution for issues with both personally and company-owned devices and technology. Additionally, 64 percent say users expect the same time to resolution for issues with both cloud-based applications and local applications (those managed directly by IT).

Eighty-seven percent of users say they expect their employers’ IT professionals to ensure the performance of cloud-based applications used at work, with 68 percent going so far as to say it is those IT professionals’ fault if they do not perform as expected.

Sixty-two percent of users expect work-related applications used outside the office to perform at the same level and to receive the same level of support from their employers’ IT professionals. Eighty-three percent of IT professionals, meanwhile, say they at least occasionally provide such support.