IT Professionals Day 2020: 5 Reasons to Thank Your IT Team

Today is IT Professionals Day. This annual day of recognition was first celebrated in 2015 as a way to thank the people who keep the wheels of IT turning. And while we advocate thanking your IT team regularly, this year in particular our IT teams have taken on a lion’s share of work in helping many companies go remote, protecting us from ongoing cyberthreats and accelerating digital transformation initiatives. Preparing networks for remote work on a moment’s notice and ensuring applications remain resilient and performant is no easy task, but thanks to IT pros’ skills and agility, businesses have been able to continue on, many without missing a beat. In addition to their essential functions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, below we’ve assembled five reasons to thank you IT team.

1. IT infrastructure managers go above and beyond around the clock.

On average, IT pros are interrupted 6.24 times a month during their personal hours with issues related to server and/or cloud infrastructure.

2. IT professionals are on the front lines of enterprise cybersecurity.

Daily, IT professionals are presented with 26.08 server and cloud-related alerts daily on average. This includes monitoring triggers, patches, updates, vulnerabilities and other issues.

3. Our IT teams are always there for us when things go wrong.

54% of pros say that they are only contacted by their coworkers when things go wrong, and 58% worry that senior leaders only view their function as “keeping the lights on.” But we too often fail to see all they to do help companies grow . . .

4. IT teams are key in helping our companies grow and innovate.

IT pros are hungry to move beyond routine activities and do the work that makes a greater impact for all of us. 47% want to spend more time on designing and implementing new solutions, and 59% of tech pros are frustrated by time spent on monitoring and OS maintenance. A whopping 83% say their departments should be viewed as centers for innovation.

5. IT pros continually educate themselves to keep pace with this ever-evolving field.

As such, 53.7% of IT pros say they feel like they’ve held 2-5 different roles since starting their careers in IT. In order to meet shifting demands, 37% of pros participate in training to learn new skills monthly, while 11% do so weekly.

Data derived from INAP’s annual State of IT Infrastructure Management report. The survey was conducted among 500 IT senior leaders and infrastructure managers in the United States and Canada.

Drop your IT team a note to let them know you appreciate their hard work and dedication. Or make a quick video to say, “thanks.” In the video below, INAP leadership thank our 100-plus essential data center workers. The terrific performance from these IT pros has enabled our thousands of global customers to successfully operate their businesses through a period of immense challenge.