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While confidence in operational resilience is growing among IT teams in the EMEA region, a new study by SolarWinds suggests this optimism may be superficial, with day-to-day disruptions continuing to consume significant resources.
The 2025 IT Trends Report, Fragile to Agile: The State of Operational Resilience, surveyed more than 200 IT professionals across EMEA.
The findings reveal that 89 per cent of IT leaders describe their organisation as resilient, yet only one in three (34 per cent) feel “very resilient.”
According to the report, 45 per cent of EMEA IT leaders spend a quarter of their working week resolving critical issues and service disruptions. This indicates a disconnect between perceived resilience and the reality of daily operations.
IT report shows processes are “biggest obstacles”
The study also highlights that cumbersome processes, not technology, are the biggest obstacles to stronger resilience, with over a third (35 per cent) of participants pointing to workflow issues. Half of those surveyed blame processes during periods of disruption, and 38 per cent state that they lack a sufficient number of people to be operationally resilient.
Abdul Rehman Tariq Butt, regional director – Middle East at SolarWinds, commented on the findings: “To remain competitive in such a fast-moving market, IT teams need the right talent, streamlined workflows, and modern tools to embed resilience into daily operations and focus on innovation rather than recovery.”
Despite the challenges, EMEA IT teams are proactively investing in operational resilience, with a quarter of respondents allocating between 21 per cent and 30 per cent of their IT budgets to disruption prevention.
Cullen Childress, chief product officer at SolarWinds, stated that “achieving it requires more than just adopting new technology. Organisations must equip their IT teams with the right tools, workflows, and talent to stay agile and responsive.”
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