IT Professionals Face New Challenges as Organizations Become More Digital, CompTIA Research Reveals

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Sep 16, 2015, 09:30 ET

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Sept. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Job responsibilities for information technology (IT) professionals are becoming more challenging and complicated as organizations become more digital, according to a recent research report published by CompTIA, the IT industry association.

The wide range of new technology options available to organizations, led by cloud computing and mobile technologies, is prompting IT professionals to re-evaluate their roles and re-prioritize responsibilities, CompTIA's Building Digital Organization report asserts.

Internal IT teams are finding that the construction and support of business systems, such as data storage, mobile device and app support and security, have become much more complicated.

"This is true on both the backend of the IT architecture, where applications are hosted and databases crunch numbers; and the frontend, where users interact with the backend and perform day-to-day operations," Seth Robinson, senior director, technology analysis, CompTIA, explained.

"Cloud computing and mobile devices have transformed both of these aspects, with cloud changing how systems are constructed and mobile devices driving new experiences and workflows."

No areas are more problematic for IT professional today than digital data and cybersecurity. While both have long been critical parts of IT operations, there importance is magnified as organizations adopt new cloud and mobile components.

"New threats have emerged as a result of cloud and mobility, so understanding these threats is a top priority for the IT team even as traditional threats continue to be effective," Robinson said. "It's no simple task."

The top change driven by cloud computing within the IT function is the management of storage. Systems and data are spread across multiple environments; and there are many cloud solutions, such as databases and analytics services, that allow companies to build robust plans beyond the simple storage of data.

Though many companies have found cloud to be cost-neutral, the expectation of lower costs still lingers. Among IT professionals surveyed by CompTIA, 61 percent said that controlling costs is the top challenge in the overall management of backend architecture.

Other challenges with backend systems revolve around the complexity in managing multiple models, starting with selecting the correct model (cited by 47 percent of IT professionals). Complexity remains as the process moves on and models are integrated (43 percent), secured (43 percent) and monitored (42 percent).

About half of the companies surveyed that have experienced difficulties with frontend systems cited cost control as an issue, as they need to support a growing number of devices. Companies also struggle with creating and managing new applications needed for mobile devices and ensuring that users are properly equipped to put their new devices to good use.

"Many companies discover that the traditional desktop development experience does not perfectly translate to mobile app development; or they're adding new development efforts were there were none in the past," Robinson said.

CompTIA's Building Digital Organizations is available for free with a simple registration. Visit http://www.comptia.org/insight-tools to learn more.

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SOURCE CompTIA