Enterprise technology moves fast. Anyone working in IT knows that staying relevant means continuously updating their skills — yet the day-to-day pressure of keeping systems running leaves little room for deliberate learning. A pair of SolarWinds surveys from 2019 put hard numbers on a tension most IT professionals feel acutely.
The Confidence Gap Is Real
According to a SolarWinds survey of technology professionals, 70% do not feel completely confident that they possess all the skills they will need to successfully manage their IT environments over the next three to five years. That statistic alone signals a systemic problem: the majority of the people responsible for running enterprise infrastructure are worried about being left behind by technological change.
A healthy degree of concern about skill obsolescence can be a motivator. But concern only creates value when it translates into action — and for a significant portion of IT professionals, it isn’t.
Most IT Pros Aren’t Actively Upskilling
A follow-up SolarWinds survey, Building Confidence for Tech Pros of Tomorrow, polled 177 technology professionals across both public and private sectors internationally in August 2019. Its findings are worth examining in detail:
- 60% of technology professionals had not actively pursued learning a new skill or completed a certification in the previous six months.
- Of those who did begin a certification program, roughly 50% did not finish.
- The primary reason for non-completion was lack of time.
The pattern is familiar: professionals recognize the need to learn, intend to act on it, but operational workloads consistently crowd out development time. This is not a motivation problem — it is a structural one.
How Enterprises Are Responding
Organizations are not ignoring the skills gap. Many are investing in internal development, though the approaches vary in effectiveness:
- 35% of respondents cited internal training programs as their organization’s primary mitigation strategy.
- 54% said full-day, in-person workshops provide the most value relative to time invested — suggesting that immersive, focused formats are preferred over fragmented online modules.
The preference for structured, dedicated learning time reinforces the core problem: IT professionals aren’t struggling to find learning resources, they’re struggling to carve out uninterrupted time to use them.
Soft Skills Are Now Table Stakes
Technical depth alone is no longer enough. The survey found that non-technical competencies are increasingly viewed as career-critical by technology professionals themselves:
- Project management — cited by 56% as critical for career growth
- Public speaking and presentations — cited by 52%
- Interpersonal communication — cited by 46% as the most critical skill overall
These findings align with a broader industry trend: as IT moves closer to the business, professionals who can translate technical complexity into business language become significantly more valuable. The ability to present findings, lead projects and communicate risk to non-technical stakeholders is no longer a soft differentiator — it is increasingly a hard requirement.
Confidence in Conversations, Not in Resources
One nuanced finding from the survey is worth highlighting: the majority of technology professionals reported feeling confident when speaking with business leaders, but they do not believe they have adequate support or tools to be effective in their roles.
The top two things respondents said they need to become confident managing current and future environments were:
- Increased budget and additional resources — cited by 64%
- More support from IT or business leadership — cited by 48%
This suggests a disconnect between communication ability and organizational enablement. IT professionals can articulate needs to leadership, but those needs are not consistently being met — which in turn constrains their ability to grow and perform.
Application Performance Management Skills Are in Growing Demand
As enterprises become more dependent on software to deliver business outcomes, proficiency in application performance management (APM) is becoming a baseline expectation rather than a specialist skill. Survey respondents indicated that application support, troubleshooting and monitoring are tasks they are increasingly responsible for — regardless of their formal job title.
Additionally, 53% of respondents identified user experience monitoring of applications as a skill they are required to develop. This reflects the shift in how IT success is measured: not just uptime and infrastructure health, but the quality of experience delivered to end users.
Key Takeaways for IT Leaders and Practitioners
- Time is the real barrier to upskilling — organizations that want to close the skills gap need to schedule protected learning time, not just provide resources.
- Immersive training formats outperform fragmented ones — full-day workshops score higher than self-paced modules alone, suggesting focused blocks of time are more effective.
- Soft skills are now core skills — project management, communication and presentation skills belong in any modern IT development plan.
- APM and UX monitoring are becoming baseline competencies — professionals who can monitor, troubleshoot and communicate application performance will be increasingly valuable.
- Resource constraints are limiting growth — leadership support and budget are the top factors IT professionals say they need; organizations that ignore this signal risk accelerating attrition.
Source: SolarWinds “Building Confidence for Tech Pros of Tomorrow” survey, August 2019, as reported by devops.com.