Pressure takes toll on IT chiefs

Tom Gutteridge: IT directors are swamped and businesses are not investing in more heads

Stretched IT departments are papering over the cracks in their network with more than three-quarters managing performance in a disorderly way, according to research.

Research house Vanson Bourne was commissioned by integrator Damovo to quiz 100 IT directors of firms with more than 1,000 staff. Eighty-two revealed they had concerns about network performance, but 76 claimed they took an ad hoc approach to upgrades or extensions.

Reducing network redundancy and using the additional bandwidth for everyday purposes is the norm for 44 companies. Damovo’s strategic development director Tom Gutteridge claimed this was a dangerous practice.

“IT directors are swamped and businesses are not investing in more heads,” he said.
Eighty-five granted mobile network access on a case-by-case basis while 46 claimed they were seeing increased complaints about network or application performance.

Fifty-five IT chiefs said wireless network performance had been problematic, but 57 indicated they deployed wireless access points when needed in an attempt to enhance network coverage.

Richard Eglon, marketing manager for support services firm Comms-care, said: “There tends to be a mish-mash of legacy and new equipment from different vendors. Performance can be affected and security issues can increase.”