Enter the IT leader: the evolving role of IT professionals

Organisations have experienced exponential digital transformation in recent times, with each technological milestone arriving at their doorstep quicker than the last. While every employee has felt this impact — adjusting from in-office landlines to mobile working, face-to-face meetings to video calls, or physical filing to cloud storage — IT professionals have experienced extraordinary change in their roles.

No longer there only to ensure devices run smoothly, IT teams are now expected to look after dispersed endpoints, educate employees on best practices, defend against unprecedented threats and provide consultation on emerging technologies. Inevitably, this has led to an increase in workloads for IT professionals, making it more critical than ever that they receive adequate support.

The cyber epidemic that requires IT medicine

One the greatest causes of IT professionals’ increasing workloads is the growing prevalence of and disruption from cyberthreats. The Australian Signals Directorate found that a cybersecurity incident is reported approximately once every six minutes, with many large-scale cyber attacks taking place in the last year. Often, the cause of these attacks falls on poorly managed endpoints, as ongoing digitalisation expands the number of endpoints within businesses, while their endpoint management hasn’t kept up. For IT professionals, managing a range of cybersecurity components — hygiene, employee education and investment — is now a core responsibility, especially in organisations without a dedicated cybersecurity team.

Frustratingly, this means IT professionals have no days off. As cybercriminals do not operate within the laws and working hours that organisations do, IT workers must make sure they are regularly running routine cybersecurity checks on systems and endpoints, educating boards and employees on best practices, and aligning with new and existing government frameworks such as NIST and the Essential Eight — all at a pace that stays ahead of cybercriminals’ innovation. Moreover, as these cyber protocols take place, they must also stay on top of their other IT management responsibilities.

Cybersecurity will never drop in importance for IT professionals, and as their roles evolve, they must continue to find ways to ensure they are addressing all aspects of their job, while also accounting for emerging technologies and innovations that they need to fit within existing operations.

Artificial intelligence: Strain or gain for IT professionals?

While the arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) dates back further than most realise, its boom in popularity has been recent — and has presented previously unimaginable ways for organisations to operate and innovate. AI’s adoption will largely be dictated by global sentiment towards it; however, IT professionals, who likely hold the strongest understanding of an organisation’s existing technology stack, have become advisors within businesses for adopting such technologies. They can identify where implementing AI will be optimal for the business and can provide perspectives on how beneficial AI can be for departments, processes and employees.

In the same vein, IT professionals can also mitigate over-zealous AI ambitions within businesses. While regulatory discussions take place in Australia, IT professionals can guide businesses on how to responsibly handle AI and what guardrails to introduce to ensure the organisation’s security.

As with cyberthreats, as AI advances in complexity IT professionals will become even more essential given their expertise in integrating AI into existing systems and ensuring its secure and ethical use.

Escaping tech stack purgatory

A significant factor in the evolving role of IT professionals is the management of increasingly complex IT solutions and tech stacks. Desperate to stay afloat during the pandemic, businesses rapidly adopted a variety of solutions, and as companies react to the likes of AI and cyberthreats, more applications and software are adopted, often without clear direction. Forced to create a perfect picture out of puzzle pieces that don’t fit together, IT professionals now find themselves tasked with optimising these disjointed suites within businesses.

Traditionally responsible for managing software, IT professionals now help businesses with investment recommendations, such as which aspects of the tech suite require more budget to keep up with new trends — for example, the recent emphasis on endpoint and mobile device management as workplaces shift to hybrid models. Furthermore, IT workers can share recommendations on where to save money, such as through consolidating software to one platform.

Ultimately, as organisations continue their digital transformation journeys, IT professionals act as strategic advisors for amending existing tech stacks and can assist businesses looking to invest in new solutions.

Give back to your IT workers

As IT professionals’ roles expand to take on more responsibilities, it is important that organisations recognise how this has affected their workloads. From the top, business leaders can listen to recommendations for technology suites and consider which solutions and platforms will ease workloads for IT professionals, while providing the most productive outcomes. Automating time-consuming aspects such as endpoint and patch management allows IT teams to focus on bigger, more strenuous tasks.

Furthermore, all employees can do their part in supporting IT workers. Upholding best practices on remaining cyber-safe, updating devices regularly, and following correct processes to fix IT problems creates a more coordinated and efficient use of IT professionals’ time.

Finally, providing opportunities for IT professionals to attend local events can help build a sense of community, and allow them to interact with other professionals in the industry experiencing the same challenges and changes within their roles.

IT workers have evolved into strategic leaders within businesses and moving forward they will remain paramount to organisations’ cybersecurity and ability to harness emerging technologies and investments. And like any good leader, they require the right support to carry out their responsibilities successfully.

*Michael Robotham has a diverse and extensive work experience, and is currently the managing director APAC at NinjaOne. Michael previously worked at Cisco Meraki for nearly a decade.

Top image credit: iStock.com/Kobus Louw