PRESS RELEASE
LOUISVILLE, Colo. — JumpCloud Inc.today announced the findings of its Q1 2024 Small and Medium Business (SMB) IT Trends Report: “State of IT in 2024: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence, Economic Uncertainty, and Evolving Security Threats”. The report provides updated survey results and new findings to the company’s semi-annual SMB IT Trends report, first released in June 2021. The latest edition of the report delves into the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on management of identities, security challenges, economic uncertainties and the growing reliance on managed service providers (MSPs) in IT operations.
JumpCloud commissioned this semi-annual survey of SMB IT administrators to gain unique insights into the day-to-day experiences of IT professionals powering and protecting operations without budgets and enterprise-level staffing. The latest survey results, from administrators in the US, UK and India, indicate how quickly AI has impacted identity management and highlights that IT professionals have both high hopes and fears in the their response. With a strong majority of respondents actively planning or implementing within the next year and supporting investment in AI, IT leaders clearly see the potential benefits of implementing AI in their workplaces. But IT administrators report significant concerns about their organizations’ current ability to protect themselves from related threats and personal concerns about the impact of AI on their careers.
“While AI is the buzzword making headlines, it is security that remains a key concern for IT teams, given the growing sophistication of external threats and growing regulatory pressures,” said Rajat Bhargava, CEO of JumpCloud. “And it’s only getting worse. We found that 56% of administrators say they are more concerned about their organization’s security posture today than they were six months ago. To reduce this complexity and anxiety, organizations should look for solutions that offer a unified and open approach to identity and IT management. This can improve security, mitigate operational disruptions, and alleviate administrator burnout.”
The findings from the JumpCloud Q1 2024 SMB IT Trends report are available in the JumpCloud eBook, “State of IT 2024: The Rise of AI, Economic Uncertainty, and Evolving Security Threats,” which can be downloaded for free here.
Key findings include:
AI adoption: Optimism and concerns
The vast majority of administrators see AI as a net benefit to their organization and believe their organization is moving towards AI at the right pace, although this optimism is tempered by significant concerns about the potential impact of AI on safety and individual careers.
Key AI achievements include:
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Organizations are actively planning for AI: Only 13% of organizations currently have no plan to implement AI initiatives, and 76% agree their organization should invest in AI.
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Administrators are optimistic about artificial intelligence: 79% report that AI will be a net positive, versus just 6% who see it as a net negative. Most administrators believe their organizations are approaching AI adoption at exactly the right speed (55%). A more or less equal percentage believes they are moving too fast (22%) or too slowly (19%).
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IT teams are cautious about AI’s potential for organizational safety and careers: 62% agree that AI is outpacing their organization’s ability to protect against threats overall, and nearly half (45%) worry about AI’s impact on their work.
Uncertainty for IT
The start of 2024 sees SMBs continue to struggle with economic uncertainties and IT teams unsure of what this means for their organizations and operations.
Key IT management outcomes include:
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Concerns about layoffs persist: 57% of organizations have experienced layoffs in the past year. Just over a quarter (27%) have not experienced any layoffs and do not expect any in the next six months.
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Administrators are concerned about the impact of budget cuts on security: 72% agree that any security budget cuts will increase organizational risk, and 56% are more concerned about their organization’s security posture than they were six months ago.
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Licensing Costs Rise as Compliance Mandates Expand: 88% report that suppliers have increased prices in the last six months and 76% report increased compliance and regulatory requirements in their region.
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Device environments require IT flexibility, with Windows usage declining and macOS and Linux usage increasing year over year: The average breakdown by device type in SMBs is Windows at 60% (down from 64% in April 2023), macOS at 22% (up from 20% in April 2023), and Linux at 22% (up from to 16% in April 2023). .
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IT administrators want centralized IT: 75% of IT professionals would prefer a single tool to do their job rather than a series of point solutions. In practice, administrators most commonly need 5-10 applications to manage employee lifecycle (37%), although nearly a quarter (22%) need 11 or more, and nearly 1 in 10 (9 %) needs more than 15 applications to manage worker lifecycle.
Security challenges persist as administrators modify their response
IT teams continue to report that security concerns remain prevalent among the various challenges and responsibilities they manage. With the advent of artificial intelligence and the growing sophistication of cybersecurity threats, IT administrators are adapting their responses and implementing additional layers of protection.
Key safety findings include:
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The biggest challenge for IT administrators is security: 56% say security is their biggest IT challenge, followed by new service and application deployments (45%), increased workload (44%), followed by the cost of remote working solutions (42%).
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Biometrics adoption on the rise, even as password-based systems are stubborn: While 83% of organizations use password-based authentication for some IT resources, 83% also require multi-factor authentication (MFA), and over two-thirds require biometric authentication (66%), although 67% of IT professionals agree that adding additional security measures makes for a more complicated experience. The average employee has three to five passwords to access their IT resources, although 15% of employees have 10 or more passwords on average.
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The biggest security threats remain the same: The top three security concerns now are the same as in April 2023. IT administrators reported that network attacks were their biggest challenge (40%), followed by software vulnerability exploits (34%), and ransomware (29%).
MSPs play an important role in IT operations
MSPs are increasingly crucial to SMB IT operations as a growing number of SMBs turn to them for IT management.
MSP key findings include:
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MSPs take control of IT for SMBs: While 76% of SMBs rely on an MSP for some functionality, 42% of organizations use an MSP to fully manage their IT environment, an increase of 56% since April 2023.
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Organizations that rely on MSPs for a variety of functions: System security is the most common area SMBs use MSPs for (57%), followed by cloud storage (52%), system monitoring (51%), system management (47%), managed backup ( 40%), hardware procurement (34%), business continuity/disaster recovery (32%), help desk (35%), and change management (27%).
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MSPs are believed to offer a wide range of benefits: The top reasons SMBs report using an MSP are that they are up to date on the latest technologies (65%), can provide a better user experience (60%), and are cost-effective (57%).
Survey methodology:
JumpCloud surveyed 1,213 IT decision makers from SMEs in the UK, US and India, including managers, directors, VPs and executives. Each respondent represented an organization with 2,500 or fewer employees in a variety of industries. The online survey was conducted by Propeller Insights, from November 14, 2023 to November 27, 2023. Results from the JumpCloud Q1 2024 SMB IT Trends Report can be found in “State of IT 2024: The Rise of AI, Economic Uncertainty, and Evolving Security Threats,” Here.
Additional resources for IT administrators:
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Light JumpCloud Blogwhere administrators can review technical articles, follow step-by-step guides, evaluate feature and product comparisons, and learn essential IT administrator tips and tricks.
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Sign up JumpCloud Universitywhere administrators can enroll in free courses for all skill levels and obtain official JumpCloud certification.
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Assist IT timea weekly community program open to anyone, focusing on everything related to the life of the IT administrator.
About JumpCloud
JumpCloud® helps IT teams and managed service providers (MSPs) get the job done® centralizing the management of user identities and devices, enabling small and medium-sized businesses to adopt Zero Trust security models. JumpCloud has been used by over 200,000 organizations, including GoFundMe, Grab, ClassPass, Beyond Finance, and Foursquare. JumpCloud has raised over $400 million from world-class investors including Sapphire Ventures, General Atlantic, Sands Capital, Atlassian and CrowdStrike.