- \n
- SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2021: Building a Secure Future examines how technology professionals perceive the evolving state of risk in today\u2019s business environment following internal impact of COVID-19 IT policies and exposure to external breaches<\/i><\/li>\n
- SolarWinds introduces Secure by Design program as a guide for industry-wide approach to help prevent future cyberattacks<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE<\/a>)–SolarWinds<\/a> (NYSE:SWI), a leading provider of simple, powerful, and secure IT management software, today released the findings of its eighth annual IT Trends Report. This year\u2019s report, SolarWinds\u00ae IT Trends Report 2021: Building a Secure Future<\/a><\/i><\/span>,<\/i> released eight months after the broad and highly sophisticated SUNBURST cyberattack, is part of the company\u2019s commitment to leading industry collaboration and transparency to prevent future cyberattacks and help technology professionals navigate the new threat landscape. It examines how technology professionals perceive their organizations\u2019 risk management and mitigation readiness after a year of rapid transformation fueled by the global pandemic. The study analyzes the state of risk within the IT industry today and provides guidance on workplace strategy, tool sets, preparedness, and leadership for companies as they work to construct an organization built to withstand risk.\n<\/p>\n
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20210728005021\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/it-trends.solarwinds.com\/ (Graphic: Business Wire)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nOver the past year, tech pros were tasked with enabling a distributed global workforce and managing the adoption of public cloud services, as organizations quickly pivoted to implement a range of technologies to keep their businesses up and running during the pandemic. Against this backdrop, nearly every industry was confronted with the acceleration of high-level cybersecurity breaches, which highlighted the potential risk of incomplete security policies and procedures across the industry. This unprecedented upheaval has served as a critical catalyst for a broader exploration of organizations\u2019 exposure to enterprise IT risk of all kinds\u2014including risk introduced by the implications of remote, distributed work\u2014and the degree to which organizations are prepared to manage, mitigate, and prevent risk in the future.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe findings of the SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2021<\/i> uncover a reality in which exposure to enterprise IT risk is common across organizations but perceptions of apathy and complacency surrounding risk preparedness are high as businesses exit a year of pandemic-driven \u201ccrisis mode.\u201d Tech pros have outlined key areas of technology investment and upskilling to prioritize cloud computing, network infrastructure solutions, and security\/compliance\u2014demonstrating an inherent awareness that falling behind is potentially the greatest risk of all. This year\u2019s study reveals the immense opportunity ahead for tech pros and IT leadership to align and collaborate on priorities and policies to best position not only individual organizations but the industry at large to succeed with a future built for risk preparedness.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cTechnology professionals today are under even greater pressure to ensure optimized, secure performance for remote workforces while facing limited time and resources for personnel training. When it comes to risk management and mitigation, prioritizing intentional investments in technology solutions that meet business needs is critical,\u201d said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President and CEO, SolarWinds. \u201cMore than ever before, tech pros must partner closely with business leaders to ensure they have the resources and headcount necessary to proactively address security risks. And more importantly, tech pros should constantly assess their risk management, mitigation, and protocols to avoid falling into complacency and being ‘blind\u2019 to risk.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
2021 Key Findings <\/b><\/p>\n
SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2021: Building a Secure Future<\/a><\/i><\/span> explores how tech pros perceive the state of risk in today\u2019s business environment, and how the global pandemic impacted technology investments across IT teams. Key findings show:\n<\/p>\n
Security threats associated with external breaches and the internal impact of COVID-19 IT policies emerged as the leading macro trends influencing enterprise IT risk today.<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- \n46% of overall tech pros surveyed state their organizations have had medium exposure to enterprise IT risk over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nThe level of perceived risk exposure differs by the size of the organization. A sense of high or extremely high-risk exposure is perceived more acutely by tech pros at enterprise organizations (19%) as compared to their small business (11%) and mid-size (7%) counterparts.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- \nSecurity breaches are perceived to be the biggest external factor influencing an organization’s exposure to risk, with 76% of tech pros surveyed citing external security threats like cyberattacks as the top macro trend influencing their organization\u2019s risk exposure.\n<\/li>\n
- \nHowever, COVID-19 also had a critical impact on organizations\u2019 risk exposure, with tech pros flagging these top associated risk-inducing factors (by weighted rank):<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nRemote work policies (70%)\n<\/li>\n
- \nGrowth of data as a result of work-from-home (WFH) needs (51%)\n<\/li>\n
- \nDistributed workforce\/employee relocation (50%)\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- \nLikewise, 58% of tech pros surveyed said the accelerated shift to remote working was the number-one aspect within current IT environments considered to increase an organization\u2019s risk exposure, followed closely by unknown human factors such as employee security burnout (due to constant MFA exposure, changing passwords, and other security best practices) (56%).<\/p>\n
- \n
- \n75% of respondents say security and compliance ranked in the top three technologies most critical to managing\/mitigating risk within their organizations, followed by network infrastructure (44%) and ITSM and\/or ITAM solutions (28%).\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- \nAlthough external security threats are the primary risk factor, internal vulnerabilities as a result of remote\/distributed environments and employee cybersecurity hygiene (or lack thereof) cannot be overlooked in today\u2019s work landscape.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Tech pros are confident in their risk management and mitigation preparedness strategies although enterprise IT risk exists within their organizations.<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- \n73% of tech pros surveyed \u201cagree\u201d or \u201cstrongly agree\u201d their IT organization is prepared to manage, mitigate, and resolve risk factor-related issues due to the policies and\/or procedures they already have in place.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nThis finding is echoed by organizations\u2019 careful approach to technology adoption and implementations in response to shifting demands of COVID-19 distributed work environments: despite the accelerated timeline, nearly 40% of respondents said standard risk management protocols were followed.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- \nThat said, as detailed in a recent McKinsey report<\/a>, tech pros and their IT organizations will need to be careful to avoid complacency in today\u2019s ever-evolving risk landscape and be sure to refresh and strengthen their approach to risk management for the future.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Tech pros are prioritizing investments in security and compliance, network infrastructure, and cloud computing as core technologies that can help manage risk, but implementation is hampered by dwindling resources and access to personnel training. <\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- \nMore than 80% of tech pros surveyed \u201cagreed\u201d or \u201cstrongly agreed\u201d technology is the best way for organizations to manage, mitigate, and resolve issues related to risk.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nIT teams prioritized investment in security and compliance (54%) and network infrastructure (52%), followed by cloud computing (35%) to accommodate the unprecedented demands of COVID-19 and the shift to remote work.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- \nHowever, despite the understanding that technology can play a critical role in enterprise IT risk management, barriers to its adoption and implementation exist. The top three reported challenges when it comes to using technology to mitigate and\/or manage risk within organizations are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nLack of budget\/resources (57%)\n<\/li>\n
- \nLack of training for personnel (48%)\n<\/li>\n
- \nDecreased staff size (36%)\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- \nInterestingly, challenges for enterprise organizations differ with 44% of enterprise respondents citing unclear or shifting priorities as their biggest barrier to using technology to mitigate\/manage risk.\n<\/li>\n
- \nImplementation is further hampered by 45% of tech pros admitting that while some of their monitoring\/management tools are integrated to enhance visibility across their IT environment(s)\u2014whether on-premises, cloud-based or hybrid\u2014other tools are still siloed.\n<\/li>\n
- \nTech pros are overcoming these barriers by:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nPrioritizing the introduction of new technologies to the environment (such as multi-factor authentication and\/or additional\/new monitoring) (54%)\n<\/li>\n
- \nDeveloping policies and processes (50%)\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Tech pros are capitalizing on an opportunity to foster greater alignment and collaboration with senior leaders to best position their organizations to manage and mitigate risks in the future. <\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- \n61% of respondents are confident or extremely confident their IT organization will continue to invest in risk management\/mitigation technologies over the next three years.\n<\/li>\n
- \n62% perceive their organization\u2019s senior leaders or decision-makers to have a heightened awareness of risk exposure, believing it\u2019s not \u201cif\u201d but \u201cwhen\u201d they will be impacted by a risk factor. But while 36% believe their organization is prepared to mitigate and manage risk, 26% said their senior leaders have difficulty convincing other leaders of this reality, ultimately limiting resources to address risk.<\/p>\n
- \n
- \nThis reinforces how nearly half (48%) of tech pros surveyed state their IT organizations are improving alignment between IT business goals and corporate leadership in response to other tech adoption barriers like a lack of skilled IT staff triggered by cost- cutting, consolidation, or outdated skillsets, and a lack of available IT management tools.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nTo explore and interact with the 2021 findings, please visit the SolarWinds IT Trends Index<\/a>, a dynamic web experience presenting the study\u2019s findings by region and additional insights into the data, as well as charts, graphs, and socially shareable elements. This year\u2019s study features an interactive component where visitors to the web experience can see how they compare to the results.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe findings of this year\u2019s North American report are based on a survey fielded in March\/April 2021, which yielded responses from 228 technology practitioners, managers, directors, and senior executives from public- and private-sector small, mid-size, and enterprise organizations across the United States and Canada. All regions studied in 2021, as reported on the SolarWinds IT Trends Index, were North America, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, with 967 respondents across all geographies combined.\n<\/p>\n
SolarWinds Outlines Secure by Design Principles for a More Secure Future<\/b><\/p>\n
\nTo address the industry-wide ramifications of the SUNBURST cyberattack and help strengthen its own security posture going forward, SolarWinds has introduced<\/a> an initiative to become Secure by Design. Under this approach, SolarWinds is focused on further securing its internal environment, enhancing its product development environment, and ensuring the security and integrity of the products it delivers as it seeks to evolve into an industry-leading secure software development company.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe learnings resulting from the SUNBURST investigation have also presented an opportunity for SolarWinds to lead an industry-wide effort around transparency and collaboration, and for SolarWinds to develop a new model for secure software environments, development processes, and products. In partnership with former CISA leader Chris Krebs and former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos (co-founders of the Krebs Stamos Group), SolarWinds is developing best practices to enhance the SolarWinds security posture and policies, while also serving as a guide for other organizations as they work to prevent future attacks. Customers, partners, and tech professionals can follow along with the SolarWinds Secure by Design blog content and join live webcasts hosted by members of the SolarWinds executive team, its Head Geeks\u2122<\/sup>, customers, partners, and industry cybersecurity experts to learn more about Secure by Design best practices and learnings from the SUNBURST attack.\n<\/p>\n
Additional Resources<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2021: Building a Secure Future<\/a><\/li>\n
- SolarWinds Secure by Design Resources<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Past SolarWinds IT Trends Reports<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2020: The Universal Language of IT<\/a><\/li>\n
- SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2019: Skills for Tech Pros of Tomorrow<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Connect with SolarWinds<\/b><\/p>\n
- \n
- THWACK\u00ae<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n
- Twitter\u00ae<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n
- Facebook<\/a>\u00ae<\/sup><\/li>\n
- LinkedIn<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
#SWIcorporate<\/b><\/p>\n
#SWIresearch<\/b><\/p>\n
Forward-looking Statements<\/b><\/p>\n
\nThis press release contains \u201cforward-looking\u201d statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our database performance management portfolio\u2019s improve the quality of life for data professionals. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by terms such as \u201caim,\u201d \u201canticipate,\u201d \u201cbelieve,\u201d \u201ccan,\u201d \u201ccould,\u201d \u201cseek,\u201d \u201cshould,\u201d \u201cfeel,\u201d \u201cexpect,\u201d \u201cwill,\u201d \u201cwould,\u201d \u201cplan,\u201d \u201cintend,\u201d \u201cestimate,\u201d \u201ccontinue,\u201d or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the risks and uncertainties described more fully in documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2020 filed on March 1, 2021 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2021 filed on May 10, 2021. All information provided in this release is as of the date hereof and SolarWinds undertakes no duty to update this information except as required by law.\n<\/p>\n
About SolarWinds<\/b><\/p>\n
\nSolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) is a leading provider of simple, powerful, and secure IT management software. Our solutions give organizations worldwide\u2014regardless of type, size, or complexity\u2014the power to accelerate business transformation in today\u2019s hybrid IT environments. We continuously engage with technology professionals\u2014IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and Database Administrators (DBAs) \u2013 to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK<\/a> community, allow us to address customers\u2019 needs now, and in the future. Our focus on the user and commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management has established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in solutions for observability, IT service management, application performance, and database management. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n
The SolarWinds, SolarWinds & Design, Orion, and THWACK trademarks are the exclusive property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC or its affiliates, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other SolarWinds trademarks, service marks, and logos may be common law marks or are registered or pending registration. All other trademarks mentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks of (and may be registered trademarks of) their respective companies.<\/i><\/p>\n
\n\u00a9 2021 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
View source version on businesswire.com: <\/span>https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20210728005021\/en\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\nNicole Fachet
\n
Archetype
\n
Phone: +1-212-871-3950
\n
nicole.fachet@archetype.co<\/a><\/p>\n\nCourtney Cantwell
\n
SolarWinds
\n
Phone: +1-512-585-0849
\n
pr@solarwinds.com<\/a><\/p>\nKEYWORDS:<\/b> United States North America Texas<\/p>\n
INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:<\/b> Technology Mobile\/Wireless Other Professional Services Human Resources Finance Professional Services Other Technology Telecommunications Software Networks Internet Hardware Data Management Security<\/p>\n
- Twitter\u00ae<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n
- SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2019: Skills for Tech Pros of Tomorrow<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- SolarWinds Secure by Design Resources<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2021: Building a Secure Future<\/a><\/li>\n
- \nThis reinforces how nearly half (48%) of tech pros surveyed state their IT organizations are improving alignment between IT business goals and corporate leadership in response to other tech adoption barriers like a lack of skilled IT staff triggered by cost- cutting, consolidation, or outdated skillsets, and a lack of available IT management tools.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \nHowever, despite the understanding that technology can play a critical role in enterprise IT risk management, barriers to its adoption and implementation exist. The top three reported challenges when it comes to using technology to mitigate and\/or manage risk within organizations are:<\/p>\n
- \nIT teams prioritized investment in security and compliance (54%) and network infrastructure (52%), followed by cloud computing (35%) to accommodate the unprecedented demands of COVID-19 and the shift to remote work.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \nMore than 80% of tech pros surveyed \u201cagreed\u201d or \u201cstrongly agreed\u201d technology is the best way for organizations to manage, mitigate, and resolve issues related to risk.<\/p>\n
- \nThat said, as detailed in a recent McKinsey report<\/a>, tech pros and their IT organizations will need to be careful to avoid complacency in today\u2019s ever-evolving risk landscape and be sure to refresh and strengthen their approach to risk management for the future.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \nThis finding is echoed by organizations\u2019 careful approach to technology adoption and implementations in response to shifting demands of COVID-19 distributed work environments: despite the accelerated timeline, nearly 40% of respondents said standard risk management protocols were followed.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n73% of tech pros surveyed \u201cagree\u201d or \u201cstrongly agree\u201d their IT organization is prepared to manage, mitigate, and resolve risk factor-related issues due to the policies and\/or procedures they already have in place.<\/p>\n
- \nAlthough external security threats are the primary risk factor, internal vulnerabilities as a result of remote\/distributed environments and employee cybersecurity hygiene (or lack thereof) cannot be overlooked in today\u2019s work landscape.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n75% of respondents say security and compliance ranked in the top three technologies most critical to managing\/mitigating risk within their organizations, followed by network infrastructure (44%) and ITSM and\/or ITAM solutions (28%).\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \nLikewise, 58% of tech pros surveyed said the accelerated shift to remote working was the number-one aspect within current IT environments considered to increase an organization\u2019s risk exposure, followed closely by unknown human factors such as employee security burnout (due to constant MFA exposure, changing passwords, and other security best practices) (56%).<\/p>\n
- \nThe level of perceived risk exposure differs by the size of the organization. A sense of high or extremely high-risk exposure is perceived more acutely by tech pros at enterprise organizations (19%) as compared to their small business (11%) and mid-size (7%) counterparts.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- SolarWinds introduces Secure by Design program as a guide for industry-wide approach to help prevent future cyberattacks<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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