In celebration of National IT Professionals Day, we reached out to IT professionals and companies to hear directly from the people who keep our digital world running. We asked them three questions designed to uncover their biggest challenges, how we can help, and predictions for the future of their profession. Their responses provide valuable insight into the evolving role of IT, highlight the critical contributions they make every day, and remind us why recognizing their work is so important.
1. What’s the biggest challenge IT professionals face in today’s workplace?
Balancing Cybersecurity with Operational Efficiency
In healthcare IT, the toughest challenge I see is balancing airtight cybersecurity with operational efficiency. I remember a dental office that tried to layer in too many security tools at once, which slowed down their systems and frustrated staff. What worked best was consolidating solutions into a smarter, more proactive strategy that locked down patient data without creating daily headaches for the team.
Tom Terronez, CEO, Medix Dental IT
I think one of the biggest challenges IT professionals face right now is balancing the pressure to adopt AI quickly with the responsibility of making sure systems remain secure. I’ve lost count of the times innovation created excitement in leadership, but IT was left scrambling to protect data from new vulnerabilities. Bottom line: if companies want sustainable growth, they need to support IT teams in pacing AI adoption with realistic safeguards.
Brandon Brown, CEO, Search Party
How IT Professionals are Measured
Having led IT changes at Fortune 1000 companies and later founded two tech companies, the biggest challenge I see isn’t keeping up with technology–it’s the complete shift from reactive support to proactive business enablement. Most IT pros are still measured on tickets closed rather than revenue generated.
During my transition from IT leadership to sales, I watched our engineering team build incredible automation systems that saved the company $400K annually, but leadership still saw them as an expense line. The real challenge is that IT professionals need to become bilingual–fluent in both technology and business outcomes.
Gary Gilkison, CEO, Riverbase
Scope Creep Disguised as Quick Fixes
As someone who’s led Salesforce implementations for government agencies like the Illinois Department of Human Services, I’ve seen the biggest IT challenge isn’t budget cuts or outdated systems–it’s being forced to serve as translators between vendor promises and organizational reality. IT pros spend countless hours explaining why that “simple” software demo won’t work with existing infrastructure.
The real problem is scope creep disguised as “quick fixes.” One state agency asked us to “just add a small reporting feature” mid-implementation, which turned into a 6-month data migration project affecting 12 different departments. IT teams get blamed when these “small changes” derail timelines, even though they warned leadership from day one.
I’ve watched brilliant IT professionals burn out because they’re expected to be mind readers. A client’s IT director told me their biggest frustration was executives asking for “something like what Amazon does” without understanding their organization processes 500 cases per month, not 500 million transactions. The gap between business expectations and technical reality creates impossible situations.
The organizations that succeed give their IT teams a seat at the planning table, not just the execution table. When IT professionals help shape requirements instead of just fulfilling them, projects actually finish on time and budget.
Travis Bloomfield, Managing Partner & CEO, Provisio Partners
Making Disconnected Systems Play Nice Together
Running DASH Symons Group for 16 years, I’ve watched IT professionals get buried under one massive challenge: being handed disconnected systems and told to “make them work together.” We see this constantly with large-scale sites where security cameras, access control, network infrastructure, and building automation all come from different vendors who never designed their products to integrate.
The real pain happens during incidents. Last month at a 400-unit residential complex we service, their previous setup had CCTV from one company, door access from another, and network infrastructure from a third. When residents got locked out during a system glitch, IT spent 6 hours troubleshooting three separate systems instead of fixing one root cause.
Dave Symons, Managing Director, DASH Symons Group
Translating Security Risks and Infrastructure Needs Into C-Suite Terms
Running Sundance Networks for over 20 years, I’ve watched IT professionals shift from break-fix technicians to strategic advisors who need to speak business language fluently. The biggest challenge isn’t keeping up with technology–it’s translating complex security risks and infrastructure needs into terms that C-suite executives actually understand and care about.
I’ve seen this when helping manufacturing clients choose between on-premise and cloud solutions. Their IT teams knew the technical specs cold, but struggled to articulate why data sovereignty requirements meant a $50K compliance penalty if they chose wrong. The IT pros who thrive now are the ones who can tie technical decisions directly to business outcomes.
Ryan Miller, Managing Partner, Sundance Networks
Finding Pairity Between Speed and Security
The primary challenge for IT professionals today is striking a balance between speed and security. While business stakeholders often push for rapid deployment of new applications, remote access, and integrations, each request introduces additional risks. I have frequently needed to delay rollouts to ensure that essential security measures such as MFA, patching, and access controls are implemented. IT professionals are not reluctant to support business needs, but understand that moving too quickly can create significant issues later.
Brian Fontanella, Owner, Keystone Technology Consultants
2. What’s one way organizations can better celebrate or support their IT teams year-round?
Showcasing The Impact of Their Work
In my view, IT professionals are evolving into key business enablers rather than functioning only as technical support. I’ve seen this firsthand when our IT partners played a central role in integrating global payment solutions, ultimately speeding up treasury functions and reducing costly errors. Generally speaking, IT pros shine when they aren’t firefighting all day, but instead building systems that directly impact growth. Organizations can celebrate them by showing how their work ties to revenue, strategy, and customer outcomesit’s a recognition that goes far beyond a single thank-you day.
Sreekrishnaa Srikanthan, Head of Growth, Finofo
I think IT pros are often stretched thin between maintaining core systems and driving innovation projects. At Zentro, we’ve watched firsthand how much time they spend fighting fires, which pulls them away from long-term strategy. Recognizing and celebrating their proactive achievements year-round, not just when something breaks, is one way companies can show real support.
Andrew Dunn, Vice President of Marketing, Zentro Internet
Celebrate When Nothing Breaks & Give Decision-Making Authority
Organizations need to flip the script on IT recognition. Instead of only calling them when something breaks, celebrate when nothing breaks. At VIA Technology, we track uptime metrics–our 24/7 monitoring prevents issues that would cost clients thousands in downtime, but prevented disasters never make headlines.
Give IT professionals decision-making authority, not just implementation responsibility. The most frustrated IT teams I work with can diagnose problems perfectly but need approval from five different managers to fix a $200 software licensing issue that’s costing $2,000 daily in productivity losses.
Manuel Villa, President & Founder, VIA Technology
Organizations celebrating IT teams year-round should track and publicize prevented disasters, not just completed projects. One hotel client started announcing “This month our IT team prevented 847 security threats” in staff meetings alongside revenue numbers. Suddenly everyone understood IT’s actual value instead of just seeing them as the people who reset passwords.
Ryan Miller, Managing Partner, Sundance Networks
Continuous Training
One of the most meaningful ways organizations can support IT teams year-round is by investing in continuous training. Technology evolves daily, and ensuring IT professionals have the tools and skills to stay ahead turns recognition into action.
Arvind Rongala, CEO, Edstellar
Keep the Tech Stack Lean
From what I’ve seen, IT pros are really struggling with the sprawl of SaaS tools across departments. On the job, I default to simplifying CRM integrations because every extra login or disconnected workflow creates adoption headaches and security gaps. A great way to support IT year-round is keeping the tech stack lean and ensuring new tools actually solve a problem instead of adding another layer of complexity.
Yarden Morgan, Director of Growth, Lusha
Organizations can support their IT teams by stopping the “lowest bidder” mentality that creates these integration disasters. At our licensed club with 300+ cameras and 30 access-controlled doors, we delivered everything as one cohesive system. Their IT manager told me it was the first time in his career he could troubleshoot from a single interface instead of logging into five different platforms.
Dave Symons, Managing Director, DASH Symons Group
Wellness Support
Here’s what actually works for year-round IT support:** We implemented “wellness-first IT policies” that mirror our mental health approach. Our IT team gets mandatory mental health days (not just PTO), first access to our employee therapy programs, and quarterly “innovation time” where they can experiment with new tools without pressure. Since implementing this 18 months ago, our system uptime improved to 99.7% and IT turnover dropped to zero.
The data proves it–when we treat IT professionals’ mental health as seriously as their technical skills, they perform better under the extreme pressure that healthcare technology demands. Most companies celebrate IT with gadgets, but we celebrate them with genuine wellness support.
Nate Raine, CEO, Thrive
3. How do you see the role of IT evolving over the next 5 years?
Shifting from Firefighting to Future-Proofing Architects
Next-generation IT professionals will be automation architects, not just system fixers. I’ve seen how teams using FuseBase save countless hours by automating repetitive workflows, which frees IT pros to design smarter, interconnected systems instead of troubleshooting inefficiencies. My advice to organizations is to let IT teams focus on building these digital ecosystems. It not only boosts productivity but also helps unify remote and cross-functional work environments.
Pavel Sher, CEO, FuseBase
IT often feels like the invisible backbone of a company, but I think its role is shifting toward being a driver of strategy rather than just support. At CLDY.com, I’ve seen IT leaders become central to conversations about scalability and innovation because cloud infrastructure now touches every department. My playbook for the next five years is clear: IT professionals will need to focus less on firefighting and more on architecting systems that give businesses long-term resilience and flexibility.
Alvin Poh, Chairman, CLDY
Over the next 5 years, IT roles will shift toward being system orchestrators rather than firefighters. We’re already seeing smart IT teams demand end-to-end providers during the planning phase instead of inheriting integration nightmares later. The successful ones are getting involved early in procurement decisions.
Dave Symons, Managing Director, DASH Symons Group
IT Roles Will be Split
Over the next 5 years, I predict IT roles will split into two paths: deep technical specialists and business-focused technology strategists. The specialists will focus on AI implementation and complex integrations, while the strategists will drive digital change initiatives. Both paths require different skill development approaches.
The best way to support IT teams year-round is giving them ownership of measurable business metrics. When I scaled PacketBase, our IT team tracked customer acquisition costs and system reliability impact on revenue. This shifted their mindset from “keeping the lights on” to “driving growth through technology.” Gary Gilkison, CEO, Riverbase
Role Will Shift to a Strategic Business Transformation Enabler
Over the next five years, the role of IT will shift from being primarily support-driven to becoming a strategic enabler of business transformation. IT teams won’t just maintain infrastructure; they’ll drive innovation, workforce upskilling, and digital resilience.
Arvind Rongala, CEO, Edstellar
After the next five years, IT won’t be known as the ‘computer people’ but as business strategists. The organisations that will make it through are the ones where IT is at the top management level rather than in the basement doing printer repairs.
Cache Merrill, Founder, Zibtek
I am seeing a trend towards IT becoming more integrated and strategic within organizations. IT professionals will play a crucial role in driving innovation and digital transformation. I also predict an increase in demand for specialized skills such as data analytics, cloud computing, and cybersecurity as companies continue to adopt these technologies. According to the World Economic Forum, 85 million jobs will be displaced by technology by 2025 and it is important for IT professionals to adapt and upskill to meet these changing demands.
Kevin Baragona, Founder, Deep AI
Related News:
Auvik Advances IT Innovation with Smart Alert Suppression and ASM
ControlUp Strengthens Healthcare IT Focus with Strategic Initiatives
