IT teams expect a nightmare during the holidays

Dealing with potential data loss will be the number one headache confronting IT professionals in the run up to the 2015 holiday season. Over one-third of IT professionals in the UK confirm they have had an IT user report the loss of a device holding company data following holiday celebrations in a pub, restaurant, or at a party, according to Ipswitch.

A further one-in-five go on to say they have had to manage the fallout that results from a user leaving their phone, tablet or laptop in the back of a taxi or on public transport during the holiday season.

While IT users are partying away, the IT team is left to tackle the consequences that can result from the festive cheer of their corporate colleagues. Indeed, over half of IT professionals (57%) surveyed this year report being worried that their network could suffer a data breach at the hands of a careless celebration this year.

Respondents also confirm they will be kept hard at work throughout the holidays, thanks to the demands of today’s non-stop connected world of business. Over a quarter (27%) say they are either on call or working on Christmas Eve, with one-in-ten (10%) on call on Christmas Day and 13 per cent also expecting to work on New Year’s Eve.

With the run up to Christmas over, there’s still no let up in sight for the IT team. 26% of IT professionals say they expect up to 50% of their company’s workforce will work from home during the holidays. Typically, these users can be inexperienced at remote working and frequently encounter problems that result in the IT team being called into action to deliver a fast resolution.

Survey respondents confirm that the issues they’re typically asked to tackle during the holidays include a user’s laptop not working (39%), problems accessing the network remotely (36%), poor application performance (28%) and security related issues (21%).

While survey respondents anticipate limited opportunities to relax and unwind this holiday season, they are hoping for some high end gifts from Santa. This year wearable technology, such as Fitness bands and Smart Watches, are the ‘must have’ gadgets that over one-third (34%) of IT professionals say is top of their gift request list to Santa.