The respondents were evenly divided among three roles–IT operations personnel, developers, and IT service management staff. They had a variety of experience levels, ranging from up to 10 years to over 15 years. Organizations of different sizes participated, from those with up to 1,000 employees to those with more than 5,000. Most respondents (60%) came from the technology sector, with representation from other industries such as manufacturing, services, consulting, finance and insurance, and telecommunications. The survey included IT leaders from nine countries Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Here’s what the findings revealed.
The Issue of Tools is “Solved” (or so Teams Think)
Almost nine out of 10 IT leaders (87%) say they have the right technology stack in place. On the surface, this sounds like great news, but it’s rarely that simple:
“Due to observability gaps between on-premises and cloud-based networks and infrastructures, organizations often adopt multiple monitoring tools to manage their environments. However, this has led to tool and workload sprawl, siloed information, and disconnected data. Teams often spend time racing to keep up with service degradation and downtime, rather than proactively building resilience.”
RJ Gazarek, Senior Director of Product Marketing at SolarWinds, explains why confidence in tooling doesn’t always translate into effective operations: “Companies often default to solving problems with technology first. But if they don’t get the expected results, they are left wondering why. They buy seats but forget the people sitting in them.” The disconnect between perception and reality shows that even if organizations feel their tooling is solid, the tools themselves must be fully integrated into workflows and processes. Otherwise, they risk becoming expensive, underused, or outright counterproductive.
Challenges Can’t Be Fixed by Hiring Alone
While tools often get the spotlight, our data revealed that team-related issues are a major factor holding organizations back. About 36% of respondents cited insufficient staff as the main barrier to responding effectively during periods of disruption. Hiring is often seen as the go-to solution, but as the report cautions, adding more people doesn’t always address the underlying issues, particularly if workflows and tools are poorly aligned:
“Plenty of respondents cite team challenges, saying that they don’t have enough people or hope to hire to build resilience. Hiring is often a default response (especially when teams are spending significant time solving critical issues), but throwing more people at the problem is expensive and often doesn’t solve the larger issue at play.”
This is especially true for teams spending excessive time reacting to incidents. Respondents who spend over half of their time resolving critical issues also:
- Spend more of their IT budget on service disruptions
- Report greater negative impacts on job satisfaction, security, and stability
- Are 50% more likely to say they lack enough people to support resilience
As the report notes, it’s not always a staffing shortage causing these problems, but rather poor processes and tool integration that force existing team members into endless firefighting.
Workflows Are a Hidden Weakness
While tools and teams are critical, the report shows that workflows are often the biggest—and most overlooked—challenge to operational resilience. A majority of respondents (51%) identified processes as the top obstacle to responding quickly when disruptions occur, far outpacing tools or staffing: “Workflows are the most common challenge, which signals that they’re also the least often solved. Organizations are missing the opportunity to examine and transform workflows altogether when they should be doing so first, before they buy a new tool or hire more team members.”
This gap creates a ripple effect: poor workflows lead to slow incident detection, fragmented communication, and unnecessary downtime, all of which erode resilience. Yet many organizations mistakenly jump to tools or hiring instead of tackling workflow design head-on. Without processes that enable teams to respond quickly and adapt to new challenges, even the best tools and largest teams can fall short.
Problems Must Be Solved in the Right Order
Building operational resilience isn’t just about fixing tools, teams, or workflows—it’s about addressing them in the right sequence. Our report recommends using systems theory to guide this process:
- First, review worker relationships
- Then identify processes to improve
- Finally, reexamine tools
For the full breakdown of the problems and in-depth discussion of the solutions, read the full report now
