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Surprise! You're Stressed
"Two out of three IT managers say they're kept awake at night worrying about work," according to a survey reported by Information Week. Three quarters of survey respondents also "admit ongoing anxiety about application performance concerns," according to the survey conducted by TechWeb Network Research on behalf of OpTier, a provider of business transaction management software. (InformationWeek.com is part of the TechWeb network.)
Survey respondents said the cause of their sleep deprivation and worry is "the complexity of their companies' IT infrastructure and poorly defined goals." Stress levels for information security technicians and executives could be even higher, says ComputerWorld’s Martin McKay in his blog. And it's probably safe to say government IT managers (the survey included 272 private-sector systems and applications managers) are experiencing the same, if not more, stress, too. The private sector has never had to submit an annual IT business case to the Office of Management and Budget ensuring that agencies "eliminate redundant or non-productive IT investments." What do you say? Let us know how stressed (or not) you are about your IT job.
Update: Karen Evans, OMB e-gov chief, commented on this very subject this morning. Click "Comments" below to read it.
By David Perera at Link | Comments (2)
Comments
Many government executives are far less concerned about cyber security than Ms. Evans, and they probably sleep better. They get their peace of mind by imagining that if they get their certifications and accreditations done and get a C or better on their FISMA report cards, they are good to go. Next problem.
What Ms. Evans understands that other leaders don't (or won't) is that the Chinese and other governments have penetrated deeply into federal computers, that many agencies have lost control of their computers to outside attackers, that cyber attacks against financial institutions have resulted in direct transfer of money into terrorist accounts actually used for buying bombs. In other words, she's right to worry.
There isn't a leader in government who is better prepared than Ms. Evans to help the nation fight back against cyberattacks. Happily she has the levers in her hands to make a difference in the near future.
©2007 by National Journal Group Inc. All rights reserved.
What keeps Karen Evans up at night? She is, of course, OMB's e-government chief, and has oversight over the effort to consolidate and standardize agency activities in nine "lines of business," including financial and human resources management. Evans was asked the question during a breakfast panel this morning sponsored by Government Executive and the National Academy of Public Administration. Her answer: cybersecurity. All of the lines of business have security/privacy challenges, she said, and "you live, eat and breathe" the cybersecurity problem; "it's always on your mind."