Carbonite Research: IT Pros Crave Technology Innovation Opportunities, Forced to Focus Time on Mundane Troubleshooting

BOSTON, March 29, 2017 -- IT professionals are the backbone of today’s organizations, however, they often don’t get opportunities to innovate and modernize their company’s technology, despite the constant need for this across businesses. To address these gaps, identify ways current IT teams are spending their time and to address what keeps them up at night, today Carbonite (NASDAQ:CARB) unveiled a new report, A Portrait of the IT Professional, a survey commissioned in collaboration with Spiceworks.

The survey of more than 150 mid-market IT decision makers in the U.S. and Canada shines a light on the vital role IT professionals play for their company, but also shows that much of an IT pro’s day is spent bogged down by routine maintenance requests, ticket documentation and troubleshooting. While these routine requests, if not addressed, can have widespread negative implications for a business, such tasks often limit time spent innovating, strategizing and modernizing technologies – tasks that IT pros love.  According to the Spiceworks research, IT pros estimate only 11 percent of their time is spent on IT planning and strategy, and only 13 percent of their time is centered around what they want to do most: modernize technology.

Not surprisingly, when asked, IT pros say that security threats continue to be their top concern. In addition to the rise of ransomware, the continued expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) is forcing organizations to increase readiness for threats. According to survey results, 26 percent of organizations experienced ransomware attacks in 2016, 42 percent faced malware attacks and 40 percent were impacted by phishing. Of the surveyed IT pros, a majority said their company was currently not fully prepared to handle these growing security threats.

“At Carbonite, we understand the critical role IT departments play within their organization,” said Norman Guadagno, chief evangelist at Carbonite. “But this research showed that far too often IT isn’t given the opportunities to pursue the things that will help build successful and resilient businesses. In a time when data threats are more prevalent than ever, it’s important IT teams have the capacity to focus on mission-critical tasks as well as proactively preparing for threats and strategizing ways to innovate their existing technology in order to facilitate a safe and secure organization.”

To learn more about the characteristics, desires and challenges of IT pros please reference the full survey eBook, A Portrait of the IT Professional, and the accompanying infographic, The Truth About IT Pros.

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About Carbonite

Carbonite provides data protection solutions for businesses and the IT professionals who serve them. Our product suite provides a full complement of backup, disaster recovery and high availability solutions for any size business in any location around the world, all supported by a state-of-the-art global infrastructure. To learn more visit www.Carbonite.com. 

Media Contacts:
Sarah King, Carbonite
617-421-5601
[email protected]

Kelsey Shively, Weber Shandwick (for Carbonite)
425-306-2090 
[email protected]