SolarWinds: Perception Gaps Found in Operational Resilience

Observability, database, and IT service management organization SolarWinds recently released a new report revealing a significant gap in perception regarding operational resilience and how organizations perceive their standing compared to others versus the actual reality. 

Partnering with UserEvidence, SolarWinds surveyed over 600 IT leaders and professionals about their operational resilience for the report.

IT leaders report confidence in resilience even when their practices might leave them vulnerable

The vast majority of respondents (nine out of 10) consider their organization to be resilient. Meanwhile, a third say that they’re “very resilient”, and more than half (55 percent) believe they are moderately resilient.

SolarWinds states that, despite respondents believing they’re resilient, their actual management of pressing IT issues leaves much to be desired. According to the report, the “optimistic perception is likely at odds with a more grounded reality.”

Further emphasizing this point, the respondents have low confidence in handling five core IT challenges, which SolarWinds highlights:

• Only 26 percent of respondents say that they manage bring-your-own-device policies effectively.
• 36 percent say they are managing increasing user expectations effectively.
• Just 38 percent report they are managing AI effectively.
• 45 percent say that they are managing remote and distributed workforces effectively.
• 52 percent report managing cyberthreats effectively.

“We can assume that the third of respondents who call their organization ‘very resilient’ experience more positive than negative effects from resilience,” the report states. “Given that IT professionals in resilient organizations typically spend their time focusing on meaningful challenges, their ability to provide more valuable service to end customers is often a point of pride.”

The perception gap on operational resilience also bleeds into how IT operators feel about their own work and role. Whether positively or negatively, 68 percent of respondents stated that operational resilience impacts their job satisfaction, security, and stability at least moderately. Additionally, the 55 percent who cite only moderate resilience are likely to experience a greater mix of positive and negative effects.

The causes of IT teams’ resilience challenges

The research also found that respondents are split on the biggest challenge to operational resilience during periods of disruption.

The new report found that shaky processes have hindered quick responses from IT teams, with more respondents (51 percent) stating that their processes are the primary reason it’s difficult for them to respond quickly to problems.

Service disruptions and IT issues are also a concern, with nearly two-thirds of respondents spending between 11% and 30% of their budget addressing these concerns. Downtime in service can undermine brand trust, with 28 percent saying outages damage brand perception, leading to lost revenue and a diminished public image. 

Despite the budget being allocated to addressing service disruptions, IT teams are struggling to stay ahead of them, with three in 10 spending at least half their time resolving critical issues.

Additionally, around a third (36 percent) say they don’t have enough people to allow them to be as resilient as they would like, and just 13 percent attribute operational resilience to not having the right technology in place.

“Companies often default to solving problems with technology first. But if they don’t get the results they were expecting, they are left wondering why,” said RJ Gazarek, Senior Director of Product Marketing at SolarWinds. “So while they may buy the best-in-class tool to solve all their problems, they tend to forget about how people leverage the tools. They buy seats, but forget the people sitting in them.”

Addressing operational resilience with observability

According to SolarWinds, solving challenges with operational resilience isn’t simply about identifying which of the three main building blocks — tools, team, and workflows — to improve, but rather about solving problems in the correct order.

SolarWinds recommends starting with leveraging systems theory, following people across the organizations to identify overarching challenges and areas for improvement, then adopting the right processes and technology to address them.

1. Review the relationships: Map out relationships to understand how your teams interact and where any breakdowns or obstacles to resilience occur. Determine which teams or people interact with one another, the importance of each relationship, the direction in which the teams interact, and which relationships are under the highest strain or conflict.
2. Identify processes to improve: The next step is to explore how your organization can improve those examined relationships. Once these areas of improvement are identified, you can begin the process of addressing them by potentially hiring additional staff or exploring new technologies.
3. Revisit your tools: If the mapping process reveals that teams and workflows would benefit from new tools, you’re in a better position to select and source the right solution after completing the first two steps. Tool and workload sprawl is already a challenge for IT teams, so seeking out tools that are built to support modern decentralized ownership and accountability will be key to avoiding a bloated tech stack.

“Operational resilience isn’t just providing tooling that creates visibility to detect and fix; ways of working need to shift as well,” said Cullen Childress, Chief Product Officer, SolarWinds. “That means decentralizing operations so tooling can offer specific visibility and scope to what teams care about. We’re building the flexibility for teams to change the way they work so that they can maximize operational resilience in the face of increasing complexity.”

Read more about how Turn/River Capital’s acquisition of SolarWinds targets accelerating product innovation and long-term growth.