For IT Pro Day 2026, SolarWinds surveyed the global THWACK® community and discovered our IT professionals and sports pros aren’t all that different. Cut through the tech jargon and it’s clear modern IT pros are playing championship-level defense, navigating unforced errors, and quietly keeping franchises running.
In fact, 49% of IT pros compare their daily work to Formula 1 racing: split-second maneuvers, managing intense pressure, and executing high-stakes pit stops where every delay has a consequence.
Here is what IT pros are saying about the work on the digital field:
Red Cards & Unforced Errors: The Human Element in Security
With the return of the Premier League, IT pros noted that security tooling may set up a great defensive line, but end-users keep giving away penalties in the box. Despite massive investments in enterprise threat protection, respondents overwhelmingly pointed to user behavior as the root of their biggest operational headaches.
- 65% of IT pros say sharing passwords deserves an immediate Red Card.
- 62% cite clicking suspicious links as a major user offense.
- 54% identify phishing clicks as employees’ biggest “Own Goal”.
Whether end-users are committing unforced errors or falling for sophisticated offside traps, IT pros spend half their season policing preventable penalties. But survey results indicate that the best IT teams don’t let minor setbacks keep them from seeing the whole field.
Clean Sheet Keepers: Reliability in Every Stage of the Game
Modern enterprise IT isn’t focused on scoring flashy goals; it’s about keeping a clean sheet. Like an elite goalkeeper, IT success is quietly defined by zero downtime and keeping the incident dashboard blank.
- 66% say keeping the business online during an incident deserves a victory lap.
- 47% selected “Longest Incident-Free Streak” as their preferred trophy.
- 61% celebrate major migrations, even as those same upgrades dominate projects and push the game into “extra time”.
Migration projects and platform overhauls aren’t quick sprints; they’re multi-stage endurance races like the Tour de France. Hidden legacy dependencies mean nearly every major upgrade has its fair share of mountainous climbs and tedious switchbacks that push teams well past their planned finish line. One respondent shared: “System upgrades and migrations always seem to uncover one more legacy dependency, compatibility issue, or ‘temporary’ workaround that nobody documented. What starts as a weekend project turns into Monday morning—and occasionally Tuesday morning too”.
Yet, when crisis strikes, IT delivers. From “turning a ‘this might take weeks’ problem into a ‘fixed by Friday’ win” to recovering critical environments before users even log on, IT pros are the unsung guardians of business continuity.
Equipping the Pit Crew: Game-Saving Assists
If you caught the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix last Sunday, you know even the best driver/car combo can’t win a race without their pit crew, and the best pit crews don’t excel by crowding twenty extra mechanics into the pit lane. They win with better tools and faster execution. When asked what would make work easier next year, IT pros overwhelmingly chose leverage over headcount:
- 64% selected Automation to streamline repetitive work.
- 43% selected AI tools.
- Only 28% asked for more staff.
Automation gives teams the bandwidth to focus on what matters, but technology alone doesn’t win games – teamwork does. The most celebrated moments in our survey were not solo heroics but rather game-saving assists from colleagues.
One respondent shared: “My colleague…saw that I was completely overwhelmed during a rough go-live and, without needing many words, took over all customer communication and ticket triage, allowing me to focus entirely on debugging.” From tag-team troubleshooting to colleagues stepping in during an all-nighter so a teammate can catch their breath, IT remains fundamentally human-powered.
Hoisting the Trophy for IT Pro Day
IT professionals don’t ask for the spotlight. They operate behind the scenes, setting the playbook for Patch Day, steering complex migrations through extra time, and stepping up with clutch assists when outages strike. Today, we raise a glass to the clean-sheet keepers, pit crews, and digital back line who keep our world connected.
Happy IT Pro Day to the real MVPs!
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