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IT Professionals Day: What Tech Pros Would Change About Business

These busy individuals envision a world where IT can improve everything from scalability to sustainability.

Juliet is the senior web editor for StateTech and HealthTech magazines. In her six years as a journalist she has covered everything from aerospace to indie music reviews — but she is unfailingly partial to covering technology.

What if IT professionals ruled the world? If they did, business technology would likely look more user-friendly and forward-thinking — or at least that’s what one new survey has found.

In celebration of IT Professionals Day, which falls on the third Tuesday of every September, SolarWinds has released findings from its A World Powered by Tech Pros survey. The survey takes a look at what a world powered by tech pros could look like if technology professionals had the time, resources, and ability to use their technical prowess to do anything at all.

"Today’s technology professionals face a tremendous amount of responsibility at work, from one-off user requests and help desk tickets to the expectation of continuous technology implementation,” said Joseph Kim, executive vice president and chief technology officer of SolarWinds said in a statement. “As a result, they have very little time to dedicate to being Tech PROactive."

VIDEO: Check out how FOMO can help improve adoption of IT tools!

So what would tech pros do if they did have all the time and resources in the world at their disposal?

According to the survey findings, they would tap new tools, including artificial intelligence, automation and cloud, to uncover more "actionable insights" for businesses as well as simplify repeatable tasks. Respondents noted they would also tap the public cloud in order to scale organization IT operations more easily and affordably.

Moreover, if they had more time on their hands at the office, IT pros said would spend it better developing their skillset (41 percent), uncovering new technologies (21 percent) and strategizing for the future IT environment of an organization (19 percent).

Interest does not end with the workday, however, with pros reporting that they would use their skills to tap AI, machine learning, deep learning, analytics and the cloud to solve societal problems, including affordable housing and environmental sustainability.

“In 2017, we revealed that technology professionals are the backbone of our businesses,” Kim added. “This year, we’ve seen this trend continue, with tech pros going above and beyond their responsibilities to explore new technologies and educate themselves further."

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