SolarWinds' IT Trends Report Reveals Hybrid IT Complexity Challenges

Hybrid IT computing is creating a number of challenges for organizations, according to the just released SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2022.

Among the report's key findings, 49% of technology professionals said the continued adoption of hybrid IT computing is leading to more complexity for IT management. The complexity comes in multiple forms, including the continued requirement to maintain legacy stacks and the fragmentation between old and new technologies. Complexity is also difficult to manage, with only 8% reporting that they are extremely confident in their ability to handle the complexity.

As to what's driving the complexity of hybrid IT, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic holds a fair share of the blame.

"The COVID-19 pandemic certainly increased complexity in the initial weeks of our global transition to support workforces working largely from home," Brandon Shopp, group vice president of product strategy at SolarWinds, told ITPro Today. "But what looks to be a permanent shift to a new hybrid work reality means what was once anticipated to be a temporary bridge is now a solid hybrid IT future."

SolarWinds' IT Trends Report 2022 Shows Impact of Hybrid IT on Security

Implementing a hybrid IT approach can improve the user experience and accelerate digital transformation, but neither of those things is having the biggest impact for IT leaders.

Shopp noted that the biggest area of impact for IT leaders when they implement hybrid IT is improved security, according to 53% of respondents.

"That tells me the last two years ­have shown the IT community how much the threat landscape has expanded," he said.

Overcoming the Challenges of Hybrid IT Complexity

While security was cited as a positive impact of hybrid IT, 49% of survey respondents also noted that visibility into their IT operations for infrastructure and applications has been diminished. The report found that time constraints and lack of resources are the primary barriers to improving visibility across the hybrid IT landscape.

The lack of visibility and monitoring capabilities across hybrid IT leads to a number of gaps for organizations, including the inability to effectively conduct anomaly detection, root-cause analysis, and the ability to gather metrics from disparate systems.

Shopp said that the IT trends survey respondents were clear — they don't have enough time or resources, and their budgets aren't big enough to tackle these challenges alone. According to the report, organizations are using a variety of strategies to help deal with complexity, including training staff, adopting IT monitoring tools, investing in automation, and outsourcing IT services.