PRESS RELEASE
LOUISVILLE, Colo. — JumpCloud Inc., as we speak introduced the findings from its Q1 2024 small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) IT Traits Report, “State of IT 2024: The Rise of AI, Financial Uncertainty, and Evolving Safety Threats”. The report gives up to date survey outcomes and new findings to the corporate’s biannual SME IT Traits Report, which was first launched in June 2021. The most recent version of the report delves into the influence of synthetic intelligence (AI) on identification administration, safety challenges, financial uncertainties, and the rising reliance on managed service suppliers (MSPs) in IT operations.
JumpCloud commissioned this biannual survey of SME IT admins to realize distinctive insights into the day-to-day experiences of IT professionals who energy and safe operations with out enterprise-level budgets and workers. The newest survey outcomes, polled from admins within the U.S., U.Okay., and India, signifies how rapidly AI has impacted identification administration and highlights that IT professionals have each huge hopes and large fears of their response to it. With a robust majority of respondents each planning or actively implementing throughout the subsequent yr and advocating for AI funding, IT leaders clearly see potential advantages from deploying AI of their workplaces. However IT admins report notable considerations round their organizations’ present potential to safe in opposition to associated threats—and private considerations about AI’s influence on their profession.
“Whereas AI is the buzzword that grabs headlines, it’s safety that is still a paramount concern for IT groups given the growing sophistication of exterior threats and rising regulatory pressures,” stated Rajat Bhargava, CEO, JumpCloud. “And it’s solely getting worse. We discovered that 56% of admins agree that they’re extra involved about their group’s safety posture now than they have been six months in the past. To cut back this complexity and nervousness, organizations ought to look towards options that supply a unified, open identification and IT administration method. This will improve safety, mitigate operational disruptions, and alleviate admin burnout.”
The outcomes of the JumpCloud Q1 2024 SME IT Traits Report can be found in JumpCloud’s eBook, “State of IT 2024: The Rise of AI, Financial Uncertainty, and Evolving Safety Threats,” which could be downloaded for free right here.
Key findings embody:
AI Adoption: Optimism and Considerations
A overwhelming majority of admins see AI as a web optimistic for his or her group and suppose their group is approaching AI on the proper tempo—although this optimism is tempered by important considerations about AI’s potential influence on safety and particular person careers.
Topline AI findings embody:
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Organizations are actively planning for AI: Simply 13% of organizations don’t at present have any plans to implement AI initiatives and 76% agree their group needs to be investing in AI.
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Admins optimistic about AI: 79% report that AI will probably be a web optimistic, versus simply 6% who see it as a web damaging. Most admins agree their organizations are approaching AI adoption at precisely the precise velocity (55%). Roughly equal quantities suppose they’re shifting too rapidly (22%) or too sluggish (19%).
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IT groups are cautious about AI’s potential for organizational safety and profession: 62% agree that AI is outpacing their group’s potential to guard in opposition to threats general and almost half (45%) fear about AI’s influence on their job.
Uncertainty for IT
The beginning of 2024 finds SMEs persevering with to wrestle with financial uncertainties and IT groups not sure about what meaning for his or her organizations and their operations.
Topline IT administration findings embody:
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Considerations about layoffs persist: 57% of organizations have skilled layoffs during the last yr. Simply over 1 / 4 (27%) haven’t skilled layoffs and don’t anticipate any over the subsequent six months.
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Admins fearful in regards to the influence of price range cuts on safety: 72% agree that any cuts to their safety price range will enhance organizational threat, and 56% are extra involved about their organizations’ safety posture than they have been six months in the past.
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Licensing prices enhance whereas compliance mandates increase: 88% report distributors have elevated costs during the last six months, and 76% report elevated compliance and rules necessities of their area.
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System environments require IT flexibility, with Home windows use down and macOS and Linux dissipate year-over-year: The common gadget kind breakdown in SMEs is Home windows at 60% (down from 64% in April 2023), macOS at 22% (up from 20% in April 2023), and Linux at 22% (up from 16% in April 2023).
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IT admins need centralized IT: 75% of IT professionals would favor a single device to do their job over a lot of level options. In follow, admins mostly want 5 to 10 purposes to handle employee lifecycle (37%), although almost one-quarter (22%) want 11 or extra, and almost 1 in 10 (9%) require greater than 15 purposes to handle employee lifecycle.
Safety Challenges Persist as Admins Alter Their Response
IT groups proceed to report that safety considerations proceed to dominate among the many numerous challenges and tasks they handle. With the rise of AI and the evolving sophistication of cybersecurity threats, IT admins are adapting their responses and deploying further layers of safety.
Topline safety findings embody:
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IT admins’ greatest problem is safety: 56% report safety is the most important IT problem, adopted by new providers and utility rollouts (45%), elevated work burden (44%), adopted by the price of distant work options (42%).
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Biometrics adoption up, although password-based programs are cussed: Whereas 83% of organizations use password-based authentication for some IT sources, 83% additionally require multi-factor authentication (MFA) and over two-thirds require biometrics (66%)—regardless that 67% of IT professionals agree that including further safety measures means a extra cumbersome expertise. The common worker has three to 5 passwords to log into their IT sources, although 15% of workers common 10 passwords or extra.
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The most important safety threats stay the identical: The three greatest safety considerations now are the identical ones from April 2023. IT admins reported community assaults have been their greatest problem (40%), adopted by software program vulnerability exploits (34%) and ransomware (29%).
MSPs Play Main Function in IT Operations
MSPs are more and more essential to SME IT operations as growing numbers of SMEs are turning to them for IT administration.
Topline MSP findings embody:
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MSPs taking on IT for SMEs: Whereas 76% of SMEs depend on an MSP for some options, 42% of organizations use an MSP to fully handle their IT atmosphere, a 56% enhance from April 2023.
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Organizations counting on MSPs for number of features: System safety is the most typical space for why SMEs use MSPs (57%) adopted by cloud storage (52%), system monitoring (51%), system administration (47%), managed backup (40%), {hardware} procurement (34%), enterprise continuity/catastrophe restoration (32%), assist desk (35%), and alter administration (27%).
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MSPs are seen to supply a broad vary of advantages: The highest causes SMEs report utilizing an MSP are that they’re updated on the most recent applied sciences (65%), they’ll present a greater person expertise (60%), and they’re cost-effective (57%).
Survey Methodology:
JumpCloud surveyed 1,213 SME IT decision-makers within the U.Okay., U.S., and India, together with managers, administrators, vice presidents, and executives. Every survey respondent represented a company with 2,500 or fewer workers throughout a wide range of industries. The web survey was carried out by Propeller Insights, from November 14, 2023 to November 27, 2023. The findings from the JumpCloud Q1 2024 SME IT Traits Report could be present in “State of IT 2024: The Rise of AI, Financial Uncertainty, and Evolving Safety Threats,” right here.
Further sources for IT admins:
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Learn JumpCloud weblog, the place admins can evaluation technical articles, observe step-by-step how-to guides, consider characteristic and product comparisons, and study important ideas and tips for IT admins.
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Enroll in JumpCloud College, the place admins can enroll in free programs for all talent ranges and earn official JumpCloud certification.
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Attend The IT Hour, a weekly neighborhood program open to anybody, which focuses on every part within the lifetime of the IT admin.
About JumpCloud
JumpCloud® helps IT groups and managed service suppliers (MSPs) Make Work Occur® by centralizing administration of person identities and units, enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to undertake Zero Belief safety fashions. JumpCloud has been utilized by greater than 200,000 organizations, together with GoFundMe, Seize, ClassPass, Past Finance, and Foursquare. JumpCloud has raised over $400M from world-class buyers together with Sapphire Ventures, Normal Atlantic, Sands Capital, Atlassian, and CrowdStrike.
