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The Biggest IT Challenges Organisations Faced in 2016

December 19 2016

Information technology plays a more prominent role in business than ever before with IT managed services becoming an essential component of running a successful organisation. Originally, using IT was something that supported a business or organisation in their work, yet it has now become the element which actually drives the majority of businesses. Technology is continuously evolving which means the scope and expertise of the IT services department must attempt to do the same in order to keep up, often with the support of IT managed services. Some of the most successful businesses and organisations throughout 2016 were those that recognise the evolving IT challenges and have adapted to meet them. With IT progressing faster during the last generation than at any other time in history, no business leader or IT employee can be an expert in everything. The best outcomes when it comes to ensuring organisations are fully up to date with regards to IT can be achieved through outsourcing with IT managed services, to ensure the organisation has the expertise and skills needed to provide the best possible outcomes. Organisations faced numerous challenges throughout 2016 that IT managed sources have the scope and resources to help with, ensuring the organisation continues to remain fully up to date with IT advancements and allowing them to progress in a world that is becoming evermore technical.

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One of the biggest IT challenges of 2016 that faced most organisations, was online security. Cyber threats can happen at any time and can cause issues on any part of the IT network, which can bring the entire organisation to a complete stand still. Cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated and better funded than ever before, making it difficult for businesses to keep up. During 2016 many businesses were unable to successfully manage online security, leaving them coping with hacking attempts and cyber attacks on their network.

The explosion of smart phone and super fast 4G usage has resulted in up to one third of employees now not working in a physical office. In 2016, access to the internet via mobile phones and tablets surpassed access via a desktop computer or laptop for the first time. A mobile workforce is a modern workforce, and employees now find themselves working away from the office environment. A major challenge faced by businesses was how to enable the workforce to become more mobile whilst securing data. Planning your approach to online security is essential, and IT managed services are able help you understand where your system may be weakest and most liable for a cyber attack.

During 2016, privacy underwent a major overhaul. The EU Data Protection Regulations meant that privacy was now at the forefront of most organisation's agendas. Keeping up with the new privacy standards in addition to evolving security threats are issues that stems far beyond the IT services team who simply didn’t have the scope to keep up. Many internal IT departments managed it with difficultly throughout the year due to the new regulations meaning many systems needed a complete overhaul. Compliance with the new privacy rules and the regulations surrounding how data can be transferred is something that IT managed services successfully helped organisations to do do, ensuring the company is fully compliant with the new rules and regulations.


IT continues to advance at an unprecedented rate. IT managed services have helped organisations to keep up with these advancements. Managing new devices and ensuring new technologies are compatible with the current infrastructure, in addition to precise planning and automating systems to deal with repetitive tasks can free up precious time by outsourcing to IT managed services. Networks are becoming increasingly demanding with information stored across multiple platforms and devices. Virtual environments, multiple servers, various connected devices and numerous applications must all be monitored in order to highlight performance issues and to optimise efficiency. Many business leaders will admit that they managed it without the success that they may have hoped through 2016. The ones that drafted in IT managed services were able to ensure their systems ran efficiently and compliantly.

A problem that plagued businesses and IT departments in 2016 was an IT skills gap. With technology developing at breakneck speeds, the IT skills gap is widening. Finding IT pros with modern skills that can cope with the rapid evolution has proven to be a real challenge. Business leaders are discovering that outsourcing their IT to IT managed services has removed the need for them continually look for workers with the necessary skills, which is a difficult and time consuming task. It also provides peace of mind for the organisations that the IT managed services will be ensuring the current IT is bang up to date, with highly trained and knowledgeable workers that can keep the business at the forefront of new technologies as they are developed.

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