TECHTOPIA 2024: STATE OF OBSTRUCTION

Aristocles changed his name to Plato. He was born during the classical period (c. 427-348 BC) and is known as one of the best thinkers in philosophy the world has ever seen. His work influenced other pre-Socratic thinkers like Parmenides, Pythagoras, and Heraclitus. Plato was a system builder and solved universal problems.

Today, obstruction is part of the process of fast-paced IT technology and ever-changing algorithms for the business world. Businesses have success or fall to the sword through their abilities to implement managed IT solutions combined with the best cybersecurity, preventing vicious malware attacks that can hold companies at ransom.

Those who think ahead of technology and integrate an effective business strategy find success that endures in the long run. If you’re searching for advantages and not using IT solutions, most companies do not last in this dog-eat-dog world.

Over the last decade, we have seen proof of the rise and fall of e-commerce giants that start with great success; however, they did not see or anticipate cyber criminals that out-think their firewalls and get over them – hacking and stealing sensitive information and boatloads of money.

There comes a time when a corporation or enterprise must consider IT tech decision-making. Ultimately, make the switch or die. How does this advanced software provide the protection required to stay ahead of the curve across company and industry sizes?

For businesses frustrated by this technology, keep reading to take an in-depth look at the state of obstruction for businesses.

Measuring Obstruction

Buyers of information technology (IT) have moved past the need to jump on board with a new adaption to IT. Instead, companies are searching for methods to improve workplace productivity, reduce expenses, and build a positive income stream. Making a business more secure is the primary foundation for adopting IT solutions.

IT infrastructure that enables the objectives above tends to succeed, while those who fall asleep face the guillotine. Without a solid digital footprint and stronghold on the changing markets, businesses slide into a bottomless pit with no escape and fade to a “once been” memory.

When the progress of the adoption of IT becomes limited by its designers, services, products, and technologies often get replaced by new advancements that work. This leaves companies in enterprise technology deciding when to adopt IT solutions, how to adopt them, and whether or not they should.

This report conducted by TECHTOPIA is paramount for business owners looking for a competitive edge powered by IT consulting and business management experts. 

While transformation is typically required one day for business applications and e-commerce platforms, the owners who make these decisions to transition to IT support will gain the most rewards.

Information gets extracted from the experiences of customers and the feedback they provide relating to the products and services sold. There comes a time when executive decision-makers must consider an enterprise transformation based on the latest technology driving success in an online world where one security breach can capsize a company.

What do these IT integrations look like, and how are they applied across different industries and sectors with a large-scale workforce and robust income volume? 

This report will answer those complex business questions. We also included an emphasis on unified communications.

Survey and Methodology Logistics

TECHTOPIA surveyed 500 enterprise decision-makers in the United States at the Management/VP or C-suite level in finance, online security, and IT. To be included in the survey, decision-makers had to help or choose the IT integrations that best suited their company.

This data included the ability to demonstrate selecting new services and tools that implemented data networks for buying, computing, or voicing infrastructure technology.

Decision-makers in our report work in the five industries below:

• Consulting/Business Services
• E-commerce
• Healthcare/Medical
• Financial Services
• Manufacturing

This survey is on doing business in the US. We also factored in the size of their workforce and sales volume to generate our report. By integrating IT solutions and managed IT services, business owners frustrated by technology can reap the most rewards and have peace of mind in the gauntlet of IT technology.

How to Interpret Growth

The data we provide in our report helps to explain growth. Growth comes in various forms: adding new employees, increasing company space, and seeing the proof in bank statements. 

Also, respondents have ideas about growth and can correlate to the “obstruction” against legacy technologies. Additionally, growth can be specific technologies that replace older ones. 

Businesses saw a sudden change called unified communications as a service (UCaaS). Legacy phone systems started to get replaced by VoIP systems. It is a cloud-based technology that offers enterprises a range of communication services.

They include:

• Video Conferencing
• Telephony
• Online Meetings
• Enterprise Messaging
• Presence Technology

Business growth can be affected by recent shifts in investments, interest, and focus, leaving many looking for ways to stay competitive and in business, and this is the “TECHTOPIA State of Obstruction Report.”

Our report unearthed many factors:

MPLS

Almost 44% of businesses said by the end of 2024, they would increase the usage of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). Also, 15% of respondents said they expect to increase MPLS usage by the end of the year, while 60 % expect an increase in MPLS usage.

SD-WAN

Nearly 50% of those surveyed intend to expand their use of the software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN). While 46% of businesses in 2024 plan to use SD-WAN, 14% say they will also expand on SD-WAN usage. It affects businesses with revenue of $50-$500 million.

CCaaS

The contact center as a service (CCaaS) has seen a rise in popularity among companies, especially when COVID-19 forced many to work from home. Growth in this sector is affected by advanced technology that works on artificial intelligence (AI) and comes with a positive impact on customers. Further, healthcare has seen a 40% increase with CCaaS.

Trusted Advisors

Trusted Advisors will always be a driving factor as technology decisions and integrating applications become more complex and comprehensive. Almost 37% of decision-makers said they worked with Trusted Advisors, while 63% reported they did not in their IT decisions for company growth.

UCaaS

Ultimately, UCaaS saw an 86% surge in customer interest during the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, nearly 51% of businesses reported minor bandwidth issues on sites when switching to UCaaS. However, UCaaS has become one of the more preferred methods of enterprise business communications.

At large, 70% of decision-makers report they could lose their jobs if a data security breach occurred.

Digital Transformations

Digital transformations have influenced IT, including building an online presence with a competitive edge and creating real-world business solutions. Nowadays, with the integration of IT solutions, business models are more in tune with their digital transformation. 

Among the industries utilizing IT for a digital transformation include:

• Financial Services
• Retail/eCommerce
• Healthcare/Medical
• Consulting/Business Services

Companies without a plan for digital transformation are the ones likely to enact a digital transformation plan. The reasons are the need for accuracy and efficiency due to the robust volumes of digital information created by these industries. 

When viewing smaller company sizes, they tend to be the ones who need to implement a digital plan the most.

Role of the Trusted Advisor

According to our report, 40% of decision-makers believe that their management needs to be more qualified to troubleshoot, optimize, manage, and plan to the full potential of their IT business systems. Businesses in this situation are more inclined to look for Trusted Advisor Services.

Depending on the type of IT-managed services needed, it can also determine the level of Trusted Advisor services they require. Almost two-thirds said they use a Trusted Advisor with their IT infrastructure and decision-making process. Also, 38% use tools recommended by Trusted Advisors.

Nearly 50% of respondents reported using a Trusted Advisor about half the time within their internal decision-making processes for company IT solutions. This action covers a variety of security, network, and cloud-related functions. As IT technology grows, having a Trusted Advisor for company IT becomes a needed service.

Are your decision-makers qualified to troubleshoot, optimize, manage, and plan your IT infrastructure? Trusted Advisors are crucial to the assessment process for executing the decision-making and the different levels of participation.

Here are some resources that support the IT decision-making process and the services of a Trusted Advisor:

• A Trusted Advisor provides limited decision-making in specific areas.
• A Trusted Advisor provides general consultation.
• A Trusted Advisor controls all IT functions and decisions.
• A Trusted Advisor makes decisions and executions for internal teams.
• A Trusted Advisor may make all recommendations for company IT functions.

Businesses go to a Trusted Advisor for consulting, selection criteria, and cloud services related to MSPs. Other application issues and infrastructure become conducted through Trusted Advisors.

Here are some percentages of participation of a Trusted Advisor:

• Cloud-Based Managed Security Providers 67%
• Voice/Telecommunications Services 41%
• SaaS Application Services 54%
• Data Network Infrastructure 59%
• Data Center Colocation 32%
• Cloud-Based Computer Services 76%

Having a Trusted Advisor is paramount for having a competitive edge in evolving IT technology and the marketplace.

Leaders vs. Laggards

During our “Statement of Obstruction” report, two groups emerged the most: leaders and laggards. Leaders see things ahead of the competition and are ready for a change in the market or IT tech. Laggards tend to fall behind the changing times and put little effort into staying current with IT changes.

Leaders in the high-tech industry, engineering, and construction have a 61% advantage over other fields. Experts in the medical and healthcare field are most likely to fall to being laggards. Compliance and security-related issues are at play in this sector due to the slow adoption of IT.

Below are some examples:

SD-WAN

Nearly 60% of those we studied expected to increase their SD-WAN usage by the end of 2024. New vertical markets are adopting SD-WAN as it tends to fit their budgets better overall.

SD-WAN benefits customers in the following ways:

• Simplified Network Management: SD-WAN centralizes network management and provides a consolidated view of the entire network. It simplifies network operations by allowing administrators to configure, monitor, and troubleshoot the network from a single management console.
• Enhanced Scalability: SD-WAN enables businesses to scale their network infrastructure as needed. It allows for new branch locations or remote sites without extensive setup or configuration changes.
• Increased Adoption:SD-WAN technology is rapidly gaining popularity among businesses of all sizes. The market will continue to grow, with reports estimating a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of over 30% in the coming years.
• Improved Performance: SD-WAN offers intelligent path selection capabilities that optimize network traffic. It can prioritize critical applications, ensuring better performance and user experience. SD-WAN can also support Quality of Service (QoS) to offer reliable voice, video, and other real-time applications.
• Cost Savings: SD-WAN provides benefits by reducing dependence on expensive MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) connections. Organizations can replace costly private WAN links with more affordable broadband internet connections.

MPLS

Moreover, despite the continued popularity of SD-WAN, MPLS continues to flourish. However, despite this truth, MPLS often gets switched to SD-WAN. Unnamoniously, 59% of decision-makers said they would increase MPLS usage by the end of 2024. Also, only a percentage of respondents said they would decrease MPLS slightly.

MPLS benefits customers in the following ways:

• Advanced Reliability and Technology: MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) networks provide a high level of performance and reliability compared to traditional internet connections. Using label-switching technology, MPLS ensures that data packets take the most efficient path through the network. This results in reduced latency and improved network performance. MPLS also offers a quality of service (QoS) capabilities, allowing IT teams to prioritize critical applications and ensure reliable delivery of sensitive data.
• Secure Connections: MPLS networks provide private connections that transmit data. MPLS uses virtual private network (VPN) technology to create isolated networks, protecting data from unauthorized access and ensuring confidentiality. For industries that handle sensitive or confidential information for financial institutions or healthcare organizations, MPLS can help.
• Better Traffic Design: MPLS allows IT teams to perform traffic engineering efficiently. IT administrators can control and manage network traffic by assigning different MPLS labels to packets, ensuring they follow the desired path across the network. This process allows for better control over bandwidth allocation and traffic prioritization, optimizing network performance and meeting the specific needs of different applications or services.

MPLS is the front-runner in popularity among IT decision-makers and top executives, while SD-WAN runs on both sides of the double-edged sword. Hindsight, as SD-WAN continues to advance in technology by gaining ground to the center of the core network, room to move over for SD-WAN can happen.

UCaaS

Back in early 2021, when the Coronavirus or COVID-19 hit the world like a wooden bat by Babe Ruth, UCaaS saw an 86% rise due to the number of people working from home during the pandemic. UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) will continue to grow in 2024.

Its widespread popularity continues to thrive for both market reasons: safety protocols for the COVID-19 outbreak and widespread cloud adoption. According to our report, UCaaS is experiencing great success based on its overall usage of IT technology. With new customers in 2024, UCaaS is in position for 2025 as well. 

UCaaS can help customers in the following ways:

• Cost Reductions: UCaaS offers cost benefits by reducing the need for on-premises hardware and infrastructure. With UCaaS, organizations can eliminate the costs of purchasing and maintaining traditional communication systems, such as PBX equipment. It also eliminates the need for dedicated IT staff to manage and maintain these systems, reducing operational costs.
• Remote Work and Improved Mobility: With UCaaS, employees can access communication tools and resources from any device and anywhere. UCaaS is particularly valuable for organizations with remote or mobile workers. UCaaS enables employees to stay connected and collaborate effectively, regardless of their physical location, which boosts productivity and supports flexible work arrangements.
• Enhanced Productivity and Collaboration: UCaaS provides a unified platform for various communication channels, including voice, video, messaging, and conferencing. It enables seamless collaboration and improves productivity by allowing employees to communicate and collaborate in real-time, regardless of their physical location. UCaaS also offers features like presence and instant messaging, making it easier for team members to connect and collaborate on projects.
• Scalability and Flexibility: UCaaS allows IT teams to scale and adapt their communication infrastructure to meet the changing needs of their organization. Adding or removing users, integrating new communication channels, or expanding to new locations can be done quickly and easily with cloud-based UCaaS solutions. This flexibility enables businesses to grow and evolve without significant capital investments or service disruptions.
• Business Production and Disaster Recovery: UCaaS offers built-in disaster recovery and business production capabilities. In the event of a disaster or network outage, UCaaS providers have redundant systems and data centers to ensure uninterrupted communication services. It helps organizations maintain business continuity and minimize the impact of disruptions on their operations.
• Better Maintenance and Management: With UCaaS, IT teams no longer worry about managing and maintaining on-premises communication systems. The service provider handles updates, patches, backups, and system maintenance, freeing up IT resources and allowing them to focus on other strategic initiatives.
• Enhanced Compliance and Security: UCaaS providers prioritize security and compliance, ensuring that communication systems are safe against threats and vulnerabilities. They implement robust security measures, such as encryption, firewalls, and access controls, to safeguard sensitive information. UCaaS also helps organizations comply with regulatory requirements, as providers often have certifications and compliance frameworks in place.

Further, when businesses switch to UCaaS, it gets factored on bandwidth concerns rather than the services of UCaaS itself. UCaaS is the choice for many decision-makers in IT, and most say they plan on switching to UCaaS within the year.

CCaaS

CCaaS (Contact as a Service) runs on cloud-based services such as Chatbot, text, and voice. It is a cloud-based technology that handles inbound calls. IVR (Interactive Voice Response) includes the ACD (Automatic Contact Distributor) and integrates with ERP, CRM, and other platforms.

CCaaS shows signs of adopting ML (Machine Learning) and AI (Artificial Intelligence). Our report indicates that CCaaS will be widely adopted within the IT industry and grow with robust numbers, especially as healthcare and medical technology see the benefits of Unified Communications as a Service.

CCaaS benefits customers in the following ways:

• Better Analytics and Insights: CCaaS solutions provide robust reporting and analytics capabilities, giving IT teams valuable insights into customer interactions and contact center performance. Real-time and historical data on call volumes, wait times, agent productivity, and customer satisfaction metrics enable data-driven decision-making and help identify areas for improvement. It allows IT teams to optimize contact center operations, ensure efficient resource allocation, and drive continuous improvement.
• Improved Customer Service: CCaaS helps IT teams enhance the customer service experience by providing advanced call center capabilities. It offers automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, omnichannel routing, and real-time analytics, enabling efficient call handling and personalized customer interactions. It ultimately leads to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Scalability: CCaaS allows IT teams to scale and adapt their contact center infrastructure to meet changing business needs. Whether adding new agents, opening new contact center locations, or integrating new communication channels, CCaaS offers the flexibility to accommodate growth without significant upfront investments or infrastructure changes. This scalability ensures organizations can scale their customer service operations according to demand and market fluctuations.
• Disaster Recovery and Workplace Production: CCaaS offers built-in disaster recovery capabilities and business workplace production features. Cloud-based contact center systems are often hosted in redundant data centers, ensuring system availability even during a network outage or disaster. It provides uninterrupted customer service and minimizes the impact of disruptions on business operations.
• Better IT Maintenance: With CCaaS, IT teams can offload the burden of managing and maintaining on-premises contact center systems. Cloud-based CCaaS providers handle updates, maintenance, and infrastructure management, allowing IT resources to focus on higher-value tasks. It simplifies the management of the contact center environment, reduces administrative overhead, and enables IT teams to be more agile in responding to business needs.

CCaaS streamlines contact center operations provides access to advanced features, and allows IT teams to focus on delivering exceptional customer service rather than managing complex on-premises systems.

IaaS

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is a cloud-based system that drives virtualized online computing. With paying-as-you-go billing options today combined with current business requirements that operate on cloud-based services, this application can scale down or up. Get managed by an IT cloud service provider such as TECHTOPIA.

With IT-managed solutions, companies can reduce costs associated with having a legacy data center. Based on our feedback from the respondents, the management, configuration, installation, and selection of middleware and operating systems, the technology of IaaS falls directly on the customer.

When businesses choose to stay with their on-premises IT solutions, the bandwidth and capability issues indicate a distant 2nd and 3rd place as others object, and 56% report favoring IaaS over other unified communications.

IaaS benefits customers in the following ways:

• Scalable and Options: IaaS provides IT teams with scalability and options to quickly adapt their infrastructure to meet changing business needs. With IaaS, organizations can scale up or down their IT resources, such as virtual servers, storage, and networking, based on demand. It eliminates the need for upfront investments in hardware and allows IT teams to deploy new resources.
• Cost Savings: By leveraging IaaS, organizations can reduce their infrastructure costs. IaaS does not require investing and maintaining physical servers, storage devices, or networking equipment. Instead, businesses can pay for the resources they use, which can result in significant cost savings. Additionally, IaaS reduces the need for dedicated IT staff to manage and maintain hardware, leading to further cost reductions.
• Advanced Efficiency: IaaS empowers IT teams to quickly provision and deploy IT resources, enabling faster time-to-market for new projects and applications. This agility helps organizations respond promptly to business demands or market opportunities. IaaS also streamlines IT operations by providing centralized management and automated processes for provisioning, monitoring, and scaling resources. It allows IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives instead of routine maintenance activities.
• Disaster Recovery and Data Protection: IaaS offers built-in disaster recovery capabilities, making it easier for organizations to implement robust backup and recovery solutions. Within IaaS communications, data becomes replicated across multiple data centers, ensuring access and quicker disaster recoveries. It helps organizations minimize downtime, maintain business continuity, and protect against data loss.
• Advanced Security: IaaS providers typically have robust security measures and protocols to protect the infrastructure and customer data. It includes encryption, firewalls, access controls, and regular security updates. Leveraging IaaS can help organizations strengthen their security posture and ensure compliance with industry-specific regulations or standards.
• Focus on Core Competencies: By offloading the infrastructure management to an IaaS provider, IT teams can focus more on strategic initiatives and core competencies. With the operational aspects taken care of, IT professionals can dedicate their time and expertise to developing innovative applications, enhancing user experiences, or driving digital transformation for the organization.

IaaS offers greater flexibility, cost savings, agility, and improved security, enabling IT teams to optimize their infrastructure and better support the changing needs of the business.

Colocation

Colocation is considered a robust multi-tenant data center bandwidth, space, and equipment that gets rented to business customers. They offer servers, networking infrastructure, storage, climate control, power, space, and physical security. Also, related products balance out the costs and offloading complexity.

Diving into the sector is even among key verticals, but company growth is shown stronger in others due to the level of professional IT-managed services. Those who declined to adopt colocation reported security issues as their reason. Colocation within the integration of IT solutions can help a company see growth.

Colocation benefits customers in the following ways:

• Security and Compliance: Colocation offers high levels of security features and compliance certifications. Colocation providers invest in robust physical security measures, such as biometric access controls, and also implement sophisticated cybersecurity solutions like firewalls, intrusion detection, and prevention systems. Additionally, colocation providers usually have industry-specific compliance certifications that can help businesses meet regulatory requirements.
• Scalability and Capacity: Colocation providers can offer flexible and scalable service options since businesses can only rent the space and services they need initially and can expand as required. By providing additional capacity and resources as required, colocation can easily accommodate business growth or rapidly changing IT workflows or workloads. This flexibility helps businesses avoid significant upfront capital expenses and the challenges of managing a robust IT infrastructure.
• Improved Availability and Reliability: Colocation providers maintain high availability levels, with redundant systems and failover capabilities to ensure continuous uptime. The data centers used for colocation typically have reliable power sources, cooling, and network connectivity, with backup generators for power outages. This level of uptime, coupled with built-in redundancy, makes colocation a reliable option for critical IT infrastructure.
• Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency: Colocation can offer savings by reducing capital expenditure and shifting to operating costs. Instead of investing in building their own data center, businesses can rent space and the required services from a colocation provider much more cost-effectively. Colocation providers can also offer efficiencies of scale compared with in-house IT infrastructure, saving businesses money on power, cooling, and network infrastructure.

Colocation provides businesses with secure, highly available, scalable, and efficient IT infrastructure that can help drive business growth and agility.

Cloud-Based Applications

Cloud-based applications have been in use for quite some time; however, businesses are still adopting them and trending in 2024. These applications operate the office tools to advanced CRM, ERP, etc. While uptake is consistent across the industry, cloud-based applications are here to stay.

Businesses that fail to adapt to this cloud-based technology tend to have IT security concerns, albeit that rebuttal continues to fade. For companies concerned about IT security breaches, having an IT consultant as your Trusted Advisor can solve these problems.

Cloud-based technology has revolutionized how businesses operate, and its impact is particularly noticeable in the IT industry. With its scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, cloud computing has brought numerous benefits to IT departments. 

Cloud-based technology benefits customers in the following ways:

• Enhanced Data Security and Data Protection: Data security is a top concern for IT departments, and cloud-based technology offers robust measures to protect sensitive information. Cloud providers invest heavily in state-of-the-art security measures, including encryption, access controls, and disaster recovery plans. By leveraging these security measures, IT departments can ensure data is safe even during security breaches or hardware failures. Additionally, cloud-based data storage offers redundancy, meaning data is stored across multiple servers, reducing the risk of loss. IT departments can focus on their core responsibilities without worrying about data loss or security breaches, enabling them to deliver reliable and secure services to their organizations.
• Advanced Flexibility and Scalability: One of the primary advantages of cloud-based technology is the scalability offered to IT departments. Traditional IT infrastructures often struggle with managing unpredictable workloads, resulting in costly and time-consuming upgrades. With cloud-based solutions, IT teams can scale their resources up or down as needed, eliminating manual updates. This flexibility allows IT departments to allocate resources efficiently, ensuring optimal performance during peak demand.
• Cost Savings: Traditional IT frameworks are often expensive, requiring significant investments in hardware, software, and infrastructure. However, cloud-based technology offers a cost-effective alternative. Eliminating the need for physical data centers and on-premise servers reduces their expenses. Cloud-based services often offer pay-as-you-go pricing, allowing businesses to budget their IT expenses more efficiently. This cost-effectiveness allows IT departments to allocate more resources to strategic initiatives and innovation, ultimately driving business growth.

Cloud-based technology has transformed the IT industry by enabling scalability, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced data security. IT departments can utilize these benefits to streamline operations and prioritize security. As technology continues to evolve, cloud-based solutions will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the future of IT.

Security

Cyberattacks by criminals and widespread security issues have some begging the universal question. Am I prepared for a cyber attack? About 4% of those surveyed reported their company needed more cyber security protection from a vetted provider such as TECHTOPIA.

Surprisingly, about 60% of respondents feared a breach in security could cost them their jobs. It is not uncommon for those hired for a security task to be blamed or fired for the security breach. Also, 60% said their security IT management is conducted at a higher level and by internal teams.

13% reported they run their business with no third parties. They also feel they can handle the security issues and are qualified for IT security. In the current digital age, securing IT systems is of utmost importance. Security is critical for protecting organizations from threats, data breaches, and unauthorized access. 

Security benefits customers in the following ways:

• Safeguarding Data: Data is the backbone of any organization, and security helps to protect it from unauthorized access, corruption, or theft. By implementing encryption, access controls, and backup systems, IT teams can create a secure environment where data is encrypted, only accessible to authorized individuals, and gets restored without any data loss. It helps protect the reputation and enables compliance with data privacy laws.
• Protecting Against Cyber Attacks: Security measures are in place to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks. IT teams can safeguard against unauthorized access, attempted breaches, and malicious software by implementing company firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus software. It ensures that sensitive information remains confidential and protected from exploitation.
• Risk Management: Security risk assessments help IT teams identify and address potential vulnerabilities in the IT infrastructure. By conducting regular company assessments, IT teams can prioritize vulnerabilities, implement appropriate measures to reduce risks, and monitor the effectiveness of the security measures. This proactive approach helps mitigate potential security threats and enables the organization to make informed decisions.
• Enhancing Business Continuity: Security measures are integral in establishing a robust business continuity plan. By implementing disaster recovery and backup systems, IT teams can ensure when a disaster happens, the organization can resume operations quickly. It minimizes downtime, data loss, and disruption to the business.
• Protecting Intellectual Property: Intellectual property is a valuable asset for any organization, and security helps to protect it from theft or misuse. By implementing measures such as access controls, encryption, and authentication, IT teams can prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing sensitive information and trade secrets. It safeguards the competitive advantage and enables compliance with intellectual property regulations.
• Ensuring Compliance with Regulatory Requirements: Many industries are subject to strict regulations and compliance requirements. Security helps IT teams in meeting these obligations. By implementing security controls, such as data encryption, access controls, and incident response plans, IT teams can demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements, such as data protection laws, industry-specific regulations, and industry standards.

Security helps IT operations in numerous ways. By protecting against cyber attacks, safeguarding data, enhancing business continuity, protecting intellectual property, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, and implementing risk management practices, IT teams can protect IT assets and ensure their smooth operation.

Weighting Statement

Much like other online reports and studies, the characteristics of the respondents can vary with company size and age. Therefore, information can vary depending on the area where it came from and the demographics. Some call this a “true distribution.” The results should correlate with the study.

We wanted to ensure the TECHTOPIA State of Obstruction report was fair and distributed across the United States without favoritism. A weighing scheme based on the number of employees for each company factored into our data. The population of the employees, number of establishments, and firms were all considered.

The weights we applied were small in numbers; however, certain aspects of the analysis revealed that sensitivity testing resulted in the unweighted and weighed samples. Also, weighting makes it easier to understand the results of future case studies.

Further, we considered the average payroll in the US and interpolated between categories to match the categories of the employer. We eliminated some modifications and businesses with ten employees or fewer from the weighing scheme due to insufficient company data for our 2024 Statement of Obstruction report.