New SolarWinds survey provides insight from IT pros on the most transformative technologies and the biggest challenges that lie ahead

SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI), a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software, today commemorates a quarter-century of producing cutting-edge solutions that deliver value and reduce complexity for enterprises, wherever they are on their digital transformation journeys. Founded in 1999 with a vision to simplify IT management, SolarWinds solutions continue to provide organizations worldwide—regardless of type, size, or complexity—with tools to help IT teams take a proactive approach toward growth, productivity, and innovation. Today, the SolarWinds^® Platform unifies observability, database, and service management solutions to help enterprises optimize performance, ensure reliability, and enhance security within hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

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Key findings from SolarWinds IT Evolution Survey of IT Pros (Graphic: Business Wire)

"The past 25 years have witnessed an extraordinary evolution in the needs of IT professionals, and we are immensely proud to reach this incredible milestone in our history," said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, president and CEO of SolarWinds. “We started in 1999 with a simple mission to make the lives of IT teams easier. Today, SolarWinds proudly serves over 300,000 customers around the globe, and our solutions help accelerate our customers’ business transformations.”

“Our purpose of enriching the lives of the people we serve and our focus on customer success fuel our commitment to adapting and innovating to meet the needs of today—and the challenges of tomorrow,” he continued.

To mark the seismic shifts in the enterprise technology landscape over the past quarter-century, SolarWinds is releasing the SolarWinds IT Evolution Survey. The report includes insights from a diverse group of technology professionals—including more than 37% who have 25 years or more experience in IT—about the most impactful industry advancements since 1999 and the most formidable challenges tech pros will face in the future.

Findings from the new survey include:

• The Impact of Cloud: Nearly half (45.4%) of IT pros agree that the cloud has had the most significant impact on IT over the past 25 years, followed by open-source software (18%) and data storage and management solutions (12.6%).
• Limited Resources and Rapid Change Challenges: Survey respondents noted they struggle with insufficient budgets and resources (19.3%), balancing security with usability for end users (18.1%), and the challenges presented by rapid technological changes (17.5%). Moreover, 29% say the hybrid IT’s increasing complexity will continue to present challenges in coming years.
• Anticipated Impact of AI: An overwhelming majority of respondents (70.5%) foresee AI and machine learning as the most significant forces shaping the industry in the next 25 years, while 14.5% say AI has already significantly impacted IT. Automation and AIOps adoption have yet to truly make their mark, with almost half of respondents (48.9%) reporting little-to-no impact on their day-to-day responsibilities so far, while a third (34.4%) are experiencing a moderate, positive impact.
• Cautious Optimism About the Future of AI: Roughly half (48.5%) of participants are cautiously optimistic about AI's future in IT, acknowledging its benefits while being wary of its potential risks or impact on roles.
• Continual Cybersecurity Concerns: Cybersecurity threats represented both the biggest IT challenges over the past 25 years (33.4%) and the biggest risks (49.5%) expected to come. Almost half of respondents (46.2%) cited evolving cybersecurity threats as the most significant challenge they will face while managing the security and compliance aspects of hybrid IT environments.

SolarWinds has cultivated a vibrant and engaged user community of nearly 200,000 IT professionals and leaders, fostering collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and the exchange of best practices among IT professionals worldwide. For over ten years, thousands of tech professionals have tuned in each year for THWACKcamp—a two-day digital learning event hosted by SolarWinds—for industry insights and fresh perspectives on the ever-shifting IT landscape.

This year’s THWACKcamp will be held virtually on April 17-18, 2024, and will feature speakers including Jeff Stewart, vice president of product management at SolarWinds; Sascha Giese, global tech evangelist for observability at SolarWinds; Homer McEwen, senior SQL database analyst at Veritiv Corporation; Jeremy Mayfield, director of IT at National Sugar; and more.

For more information or to register for THWACKcamp 2024, please visit: https://www.thwackcamp.com

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About SolarWinds

SolarWinds (NYSE:SWI) is a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software built to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation. Our solutions provide organizations worldwide—regardless of type, size, or complexity—with a comprehensive and unified view of today’s modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. We continuously engage with IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and database administrators (DBAs) to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available hybrid IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK community, allow us to address customers’ needs now and in the future. Our focus on the user and our commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management have 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.

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.

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