* Survey reveals the challenges IT managers face
Your IT managerial staff is a stressed-out lot, if the results of a recent vendor survey are any indication.
OpTier, makers of IT service management software, commissioned a survey of IT managers about the challenges they face in keeping applications and infrastructure humming. The results aren’t pretty.
Here are some of the highlights of the poll of 272 IT pros:
* Three quarters of respondents said they experience ongoing concerns about application performance. And 57% of respondents said application performance sometimes keeps them up at night. Another 4% reported this problem occurs often.
* More than half of IT pros polled have been called away from a meal to fix a service issue. Another 49% report missing an event and 37% have had vacation plans interrupted. So you feel bad when you miss your kid’s soccer game? Three percent of respondents have been called away from the birth of a child because of a service issue.
* More than half of respondents receive up to 10 e-mails or calls regarding a single service outage. An unlucky 18% report receiving more than 50 calls or e-mails regarding a single outage.
* Respondents blame poor application performance on a combination of infrastructure, applications and middleware issues.
“To succeed in this job, you need to be a highly resilient personality who can respond to unexpected challenges without letting them get to you,” says Dr. Terry Beehr, a psychology professor at Central Michigan University. “This is a classic high-stress job, with low levels of control but high expectations from the organization.”
I’m curious about what you do to alleviate stress and burnout of your staff. Let me know.
