IT leaders are facing a fundamental problem with unsustainable processes. Business demands are continuing to grow while the resources to deliver on those expectations are remaining flat or even fewer in some areas. This has created what we are calling the IT Complexity Crunch, a defining challenge that has pushed traditional IT operating models to their breaking point.
The complexity gap – the space between the speed of modern business and an IT team’s ability to manage it -- is widening and exposing organizations to greater risks and inefficiencies. To navigate these changes, we break down the complexities IT leaders are likely facing and provide a playbook for modernizing your operations.
The five forces driving IT complexity
Infrastructure and endpoint complexity
The foundation of IT infrastructure has been decentralized and fragmented. Today, 88% of organizations operate in hybrid or multi-cloud environments, with a staggering 81% relying on two or more cloud providers for critical workloads. This is compounded by an ever-expanding technological footprint, with the average enterprise now managing an estimated 897 applications.
For IT leaders, the reality is no longer supporting 15 physical offices; it’s supporting thousands of individual “offices” as people are working from home, coffee shops, hotels, etc. Each one of these endpoints has unique networks, bandwidth, firewall configurations, and some are on public networks. When an employee bypasses security protocols because IT can’t respond fast enough, it becomes a potential breach waiting to happen.
User experience diversity
There is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach to IT support. With consumer-grade app experiences, user expectations now expect resolutions in minutes instead of hours. Christian Merkel, Sr. Director of Global IT at GoTo, pinpoints this ongoing strain, due to traditional IT operating models, saying:
"There’s an expectation to do more with less that creates an imbalance, which hasn’t happened to balance itself out yet.”
IT is under immense pressure to deliver instant support to a workforce with widely varying technical skills, work styles, and BYOD environments. This pressure to deliver a superior experience, regardless of the user’s location or tech-savviness, strains teams that are already stretched thin.
Expanding attack surface
This hybrid work environment has created a security landscape where threats are now occurring faster than human-led teams can respond. AI-powered bad actors are identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in an automated fashion that creates a crisis of confidence. A recent study found that 66% of cybersecurity experts lack strong confidence in their ability to detect and respond to cloud threats in real time.
This pressure creates a dangerous cycle where IT backlogs directly introduce risk. In fact, 86% of IT professionals report that their support backlog leads to users adopting unsafe workarounds. While you’re debating solutions, your competitors might already be implementing them.
Health Audit Check: How many tools does your L1 tech need to open for a single ticket?
IT stack and integration fragmentation
Acquiring tools over time to solve problems is coming, however, with complex problems techs are now having to use multiple tools that are disconnected. According to the 2024 Connectivity Benchmark Report by MuleSoft, only 28% of enterprise applications are actually integrated, leaving most tools operating in silos.
This fragmentation is a key reason why 95% of IT leaders report that integration hurdles are impeding their AI implementation. It’s no surprise that nearly all the IT leaders we talk to state tool sprawl as being a top reason for ineffective processes and operations.
Imagine your L1 technician solving complex issues on their first try, feeling like a rockstar instead of the overwhelmed rookie trying to learn and manage 5 different tools.
The human burnout
Ultimately, all of this complexity falls on your employees. With IT teams spending 60% of their time on reactive work with disconnected tools, and the expectation to solve issues faster than ever before, skilled workers are leaving for more strategic work.
The consequences are severe: 84% of IT managers are seeing technician burnout on their teams, and organizations are losing an average of 10.5 workdays per employee each year due to minor tech disruptions.
Teams are stuck in perpetual triage, with no bandwidth to learn new technologies or how to better leverage AI in their workflows. As Mike Barry, Managing Operating Partner at FPO, puts it:
“You know what the solution is. It's AI. But you're working 60 hours a week trying to close tickets. You don't have any bandwidth to learn this stuff... so you need a trusted partner."
Ask yourself: When did you last have time to learn something new?
The compounding effect
These five forces interact with one another and create an endless loop of underlying issues that amplify each other. This “complexity gap” -- where the velocity of business demands, AI-driven threats, and cloud adoption is outpacing IT team’s capacity to respond.
Organizations feel trapped and unable to modernize effectively because the very systems they rely on are too fragmented and complex to support leveraging AI. The next major outage isn’t a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’, and your current reactive model won’t be able to keep up.
Your Path Forward
Recognizing these recurring problems is the first step towards making a positive change. The traditional IT model, built for a simpler, centralized world, can no longer absorb this level of complexity.
Companies that don't make this shift within 24 months will find themselves increasingly disadvantaged, struggling with outdated models while competitors leverage AI-enhanced operations to deliver superior business outcomes. IT leaders who drive this transformation position themselves for C-suite opportunities.
Ready to break free from the IT Complexity Crunch? Discover how other IT leaders are modernizing their operations and building an impact-driven IT model.
