- Security (25 percent)
- IT Infrastructure and Application Performance Monitoring (19 percent)
- New Technology, Updates and Deployment (14 percent)
- Time, Budget and Resource Constraints (10 percent)
- Business Issues (seven percent)
- Data Management and Storage (six percent)
- Device Management and End User Issues (five percent)
- Automation and Reporting (four percent)
New Year Predictions for IT Professionals in 2016:
Security: use what you do have to fix what you don’t (by David Juitt, chief security architect, Ipswitch)
“Given we’re spending a whopping $70 billion on security per year, it’s not surprising it ranks high among IT concerns. The harsh reality is we are not doing a good enough job keeping pace with the adversaries. Despite the high levels of security investment, we can’t say with any degree of certainty whether we are safer than we were a year ago or five years ago. Accepting some level of risk is part of doing business. Managing that risk by recognising and shoring up points of vulnerability is the difference between using data as a competitive advantage and being the victim of a catastrophic data loss.”
Data Protection: circumnavigating Safe Harbour is not plain sailing (by David Juitt, chief security architect, Ipswitch)
“Since the scrapping of the Safe Harbour pact, moving data securely and reliably to support critical business process has come into the spotlight. It’s never been more important to be sure of your file transfer policies. In the absence of new guidance to replace the Safe Harbour system, conduct a review of current procedures, pay close attention to the requirements of the EU data privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and assume that whatever comes next will be more rigorous and require an evidence trail.”
Data protection: prepare for success (by Michael Hack, SVP EMEA Operations, Ipswitch)
“When the EU’s GDPR comes into force in 2016, it will bring the standards governing data in the EU into the 21st century and will represent a major re-think of how companies in the EU, or who do business with the EU, collect, store, process and manage data. If the EU’s current timetable for the regulation is on track, businesses will need to be compliant in two years. And yet, our research indicates that businesses are dragging their feet. One in five UK businesses still have no idea whether the changes will apply to them, despite confirming they do store and process personal data. Significant numbers of investments will be required to help firms process and store the data according to the new standard. Respondents cited encryption technologies, analytics tools, perimeter security, file-sharing and mobile device management as some of the future investments. Some of the changes will be easy to implement. Other elements, though, will require C-level buy-in, inter-departmental collaboration, resourcing, budget sign-off and technological investment. So while two years seems like a long way off, businesses need to start preparing now if they are to meet the deadline for compliance.“
Infrastructure and application performance: juggling balls and spinning plates? (by Michael Hack, SVP EMEA Operations, Ipswitch)
“Ensuring network performance is no mean feat as IT teams are tasked with keeping the organisation’s networks running efficiently and effectively around the clock and need to be concerned with all aspects of the infrastructure including apps, servers, virtual environments and network connected devices. To add to these pressures is growing demand for remote access continues to rise with employees working from home etc. A primary challenge for 2016 is refreshing infrastructure to provide increased performance, capability, agility and resiliency.”
New technologies: successful selection, deployment and bedding in (by Michael Hack, SVP EMEA Operations, Ipswitch)
“The ability to select, manage and deploy new technology is a leading concern according to our survey of IT professionals. Staying ahead of all the latest technologies can seem like a full time job in itself, let alone selecting the right solution or vendor, deploying it and finally ensuring staff are adequately trained to use it. Unlock hidden value from existing investments by making sure that supporting staff understand how to use it properly. Increase efficiency and productivity with existing tools before spending time on bedding in another new technology.”
Wear and tear: the influx of wearables starts to be a real problem on a network near you (by Michael Hack, SVP EMEA Operations, Ipswitch)
“Wearables technology might be convenient for the user, but our research shows that it’s the IT professionals who get inconvenienced by needing to support more devices and increasing the likelihood of security breaches. Half of IT pros in the UK are running networks that have smart watches connecting to them via Wi-fi. 43 % have fitness bands and almost a fifth have health monitoring devices. And yet over two thirds don’t have IT policies to manage wearables. Fortunately, IT pros can better prepare to deal with smart watches and Fitbits when they have proper tools to provide total visibility into network traffic and bandwidth utilitisation. A clear picture of what is happening is the first step to ensuring wearable technology doesn’t affect network or application performance.”
For full survey details, click here.
Do yourself a favour: automate to the max (by Michael Hack, SVP EMEA Operations, Ipswitch)
“The challenge for IT teams is to learn how to thrive in a world where complexity and risks are growing faster than the IT team. To manage this growing complexity while maintaining the same or smaller headcount, organisations need simple and powerful IT management tools that save time, resource and are budget friendly. Many of the time-consuming tasks that are required to enable daily operations as well as regulatory and policy compliance, can be automated. This frees up countless resources to tackle more critical IT project and concerns that affect business outcomes.”
