2020

IT
TRENDSRESHAPED REALITY

www.netwrix.com

1.0

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
At the end of 2019, we used the results of our 2020 IT Trends Report to predict which tasks IT professionals were going to take on during 2020. However, the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns and global
economic downturn forced many organizations to change their IT priorities. To understand this shift andrevise our predictions, we conducted another online survey, polling 937 IT professionals from around theworld in June 2020. Each respondent picked up to five IT priorities by either choosing from a predefined
list or writing in their own options. To better reflect the needs of organizations during the work-from-homeexperiment, we added two options that were missing in the previous survey: supporting cloud infrastructure and network security. (The complete list of options is provided at the end of this document.)
We compared the results of the new survey with the findings from our previous research and discovered
the following:

In Q2 2020, network security joined data
security at the top of the list of IT priorities.
The third most important IT project remained
raising cybersecurity awareness among
employees.

Digital transformation dropped to the bottomof the top-10 list. However, public sector andenterprises with 10,000+ employees expressedmore interest in digital transformation thanthey did before the pandemic.

Data privacy and regulatory complianceremain a priority for less than half oforganizations.

Interest in IT talent acquisition also dropped
significantly — most likely due to hiring freezes
amidst the crisis.

Automation of IT processes became lesscritical in the new survey, but it is stillamong the top five priorities for one third oforganizations.

Implementation of AI-based solutions remains
off the radar of most organizations. However,
one third of enterprises with 50,000+ employees
now plan to implement this technology.

2

2.0

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITY

KEY FINDINGS BY THE NUMBERS

76%

of organizations named data security andnetwork security as their top IT priorities
for the rest of 2020.

56%

of public institutions now plan tofocus on digital transformation;
before, only 26% considered it
important.

52%of organizations are going to invest in employee
security awareness, which is about the same
percentage (51%) that chose this task as apriority in the earlier survey.

38%
of CIOs and IT directors now
plan to invest in the educationof IT personnel. Pre-pandemic,
only 20% had it on their list.

ONLY 24%of healthcare organizations now
see regulatory compliance as a toppriority, down from 42% prior to
the pandemic.

ONLY 23%
plan to focus on cloud
migration projects.
33.0

TOP 10G LO B A L
IT PRIORITIES

4IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITYNOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

76 %
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
74% 76%+2

DATA SECURITY
51% 52%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES+1
41% 43%DATA PRIVACYAUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSESSUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

-2
36%

53%
-17

33%
N/A
19% 31 %+12

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
29% 29%0

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

28% 34%-6
28% 33%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

-5

5

2.0
4.0

MAJOR TRENDS
mentioned by most organizations

NETWORK SECURITYDATA SECURITY

Unsurprisingly, network security made it to the topof the list, with 76% of the organizations giving it thehighest priority.

Data security remains among the top priorities, with
76% of the organizations planning to focus on it.

93%

85%

of organizations in retail & wholesale see
network security as their top priority for
2020, which is more than any other vertical.

of financial organizations consider it apriority, which is more than any othervertical.

6

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITYCYBERSECURITY AWARENESSDATA PRIVACY

With so many people working remotely, cybersecurity awareness is becoming a hot topic. It was named apriority by 52% of organizations.

The GDPR is in full effect, enforcement of the CCPA
has begun, and other privacy laws are either in theworks or have already been adopted, so privacy is ofa huge concern. 41% of organizations are planningto focus on protecting the privacy of consumer data,
about the same as in the earlier survey.

67%

ONLY 31%of organizations with 5,001–10,000 employees
plan to invest in employee security awareness —double the percentage from last year (33%).

of financial organizations plan to focus ondata privacy, even though 63% named it acore priority before the pandemic.

AUTOMATING MANUAL IT PROCESSES
By automating routine tasks, organizations can domore with less and focus their efforts on more pressing
issues, so 36% of respondents named it a top priority.

Organizations with

1,001–5,000
employees are the most focused on automation,with 47% naming it a priority.

7

5.0

TRENDS THATDIDN’T MAKE IT
TO THE TOPSUPPORTING CLOUD INFRASTRUCTUREEDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL

Although cloud technologies are more widely usedby organizations while staff are working remotely,
only 33% of respondents said that supporting cloudinfrastructure is one of their top five priorities.

With hiring freezes in place at many organizations,
31% of respondents see educating their current
IT pros as a great option for addressing the skills
shortage.

44%

FROM

of respondents from organizations with
10,001–50,000 employees chose supporting
cloud infrastructure as a priority.

The share of CIOs and IT directors that plan toinvest in IT education has almost doubled since
WFH, from 20% before the pandemic to 38% now.

20% TO 38%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Overall, only 28% of respondents plan to prioritize digital transformation. However, interest varies a great deal
by sector.

56%
8of institutions in the public sector now plan to focus on digital transformation, though
before the pandemic, only 26% considered it a priority.

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITYREGULATORY COMPLIANCE

IT TALENT ACQUISITIONAs before the pandemic, 29% of organizations now viewcompliance as a core priority.

With the economic downturn, only 14% of respondents plan to hire more employees.

24%

34%

of healthcare organizations now plan to focus on
regulatory compliance, down from 42% before thepandemic.

of organizations in France are planning to hire extra
IT staff, which is the highest result among all
countries represented in the survey.

INTEGRATION OF EXISTING SOLUTIONSCLOUD MIGRATION

Integrating existing systems helps reduce IT expenditures and simplify management. However, with theneed to support business continuity during the lockdown, interest in these projects dropped slightly, from
34% to 28%.

Only 23% of respondents are planning to focus on
cloud migration. Apparently, the massive transition
to remote work in March/April required organizations to concentrate on cloud migration, and now
they are shifting their focus to other issues.

44%

33%

of CIOs had integration on their bucket lists before
the pandemic. Today, only 25% say it is critical.

of organizations with more than 50,000
employees are planning to work on cloud
migration tasks.

IMPLEMENTATION OF AI-BASED SOLUTIONS
Our previous survey found that only a few organizations were going to focus on AI projects. As expected, even fewer
are interested now (12%).

33%

of organizations with more than 50,000 employees plan to deploy AI projects,
while, at the end of 2019, this task didn’t even make into their top ten priorities.

9

6.0
2.0

TOP 10IT PRIORITIESBY ORGANIZATION SIZE

10

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITY

1–100 EMPLOYEES
Smaller organizations continue to prioritize cybersecurity and data privacy. However, they are
shifting focus away from automating manual IT processes to more pressing issues, such assupporting cloud infrastructure. We also noticed that they are more interested in investing in
educating IT personnel, a task that did not even make it into their top-10 list last year.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

69% 77%+8

DATA SECURITY
69%

N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
49% 50%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES+1
44% 49%DATA PRIVACYSUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE
AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSESINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

+5
32%
N/A
29%

51%
-22

29% 36%-722% 28%+6

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
23% 26%-3

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
21% 31%
CLOUD MIGRATION

-10
11

6.0

101–1,000 EMPLOYEESEnterprises with 101 to 1,000 employees kept security and automation of IT routines on their radar.
What is interesting is that digital transformation and education of IT staff are becoming morecritical for these organizations. Probably, they see this period of uncertainty as an opportunity totransform legacy processes and need to make sure that their IT staff will be able to support them.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

75% 85%+10DATA SECURITY
84%

N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
57% 60%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES-340%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

59%
-19

37%

42%
-5

DATA PRIVACY
26% 32%
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION+6
21% 32%+11

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

31%

N/A

30% 31%-1

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS
12

25% 35%-10

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITY

1,001–5,000 EMPLOYEESOrganizations with 1,001–5,000 employees are also greatly shifting their focus to the education ofexisting IT personnel; 41% listed it in the June survey even though it did not make the top 10 in theearlier study. Cloud migration, on the other hand, is becoming less critical, dropping from 43% to31%. Cybersecurity and automation of manual tasks remain important.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

75%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
66%

78%
-12

DATA SECURITY
51% 53%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES+2
47% 51%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

-4
18%

41%
+23

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
35% 41%REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

+6
34%
N/A
34% 40%-6

DATA PRIVACYINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

34% 37%-3
31%

CLOUD MIGRATION

43%
-12
13
13

6.0

5,001–10,000 EMPLOYEESOrganizations with 5,001–10,000 employees see employees as a weak link, focusing more on educating
employees about secure behavior than companies of other sizes. Indeed, interest in this task doubled
from 33% pre-pandemic to 67% now. Judging by the fact that the top three priorities for this group areassociated with security, we might conclude that these organizations experienced the most stress fromthe transition to remote work.
NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

72%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
33%

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

67%+34
61% 69%-8DATA SECURITY
44% 46%-2

DATA PRIVACY39%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

N/A
33% 41%

INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS-8
19% 33%+14

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

28%

46%
-18

22%

36%

CLOUD MIGRATION

-14
22%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
14

54%
-32

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITY

10,001–50,000 EMPLOYEES
Data security remains the top priority for enterprises with 10,001–50,000 employees. Interest indata privacy, however, has almost halved, from 48% to 28%. Interestingly, digital transformation
has climbed into the top three IT priorities, with every second enterprise planning to innovate its
business processes.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

78% 83%DATA SECURITY

-5
72%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
43% 50%+7

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION44%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

N/A
39%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSESEDUCATION OF IT PERSONNELCYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

57%
-18

39%

7%

+32
28%

48%
-20

28%

48%
-20

DATA PRIVACY
28%

-20

CLOUD MIGRATIONINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

48%

22% 26%
-4
15

6.0

MORE THAN 50,000 EMPLOYEESEnterprises of more than 50,001 employees also seem to be ready to innovate. They demonstrated thehighest interest in AI projects (33%), though last year it was not one of their top ten priorities. Also, every
second large enterprise chose data privacy as a priority, which is likely related to complying with privacy
regulations. Overall, network security and data security are on top at the moment, while operationaltasks, such as cloud migration and IT routine automation, have been pushed aside.
NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

83%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
50%
DATA SECURITY

83%
-33

46% 50%DATA PRIVACY+4
46% 50%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION+4
42% 46%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES-433%SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

N/A
33%

57%
-24

CLOUD MIGRATION
26% 33%+7

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
IMPLEMENTATION OF
AI-BASED SOLUTIONSAUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES
16

11%

33%
+22
25%

57%
-32

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITY

7.0

TOP 10IT PRIORITIESBY VERTICAL

17

7.0

EDUCATION
The priority of data security, employee cybersecurity awareness and automation of manual IT
processes dropped for educational organizations after the transition to remote work. The priority of IT
personnel education increased.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

79%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
57%

72%
-15

DATA SECURITY50%

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

63%
-13

44% 50%DATA PRIVACY

+6
37%

50%
+13

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

29%

51%
-22

26% 29%+3

CLOUD MIGRATIONINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

29% 33%-4
26% 29%+3

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

18

21%
N/A

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITYHEALTHCARE
For healthcare organizations, data security remained the top priority. The importance of regulatorycompliance dropped almost in half, while the need to educate IT personnel skyrocketed from 17% at
the end of 2019 to 41% now.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

72% 82%DATA SECURITY

+10
71%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
56% 59%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

44% 47%DATA PRIVACY
17%

+3

41%

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL

+24
35%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE
AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

+3

N/A

29%

61%
-32

28% 29%+1

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONSREGULATORY COMPLIANCE

24%

38%
-14

24%

42%
-18

19

7.0

FINANCE
Financial organizations continue to keep their eye on data security, but their focus on data privacy
declined by half since the previous study. However, the priority of regulatory compliance grew from
36% in 2019 to 50% now.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

92%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
80% 85%+5DATA SECURITY
46% 50%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

+4
36%

50%

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
38%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

31%DATA PRIVACY27%

INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

27% 36%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

14% 23%EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

20

43%

19%

54%

63%

+14

-16

-32

-16

-9

+9

N/A

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITY

GOVERMENTThe WFH situation increased the push for digital transformation in the public sector. To ensure they canefficiently handle the current situation, some government agencies are putting automation of manual IT
processes and cloud migration on the back burner to focus on data and network security.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

81% 83%DATA SECURITY

-2
56%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
56%

26%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION50%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

41% 44%
20%

+18
25%
25%

N/A
48%
-23

25%

46%
-21

CLOUD MIGRATIONINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS+338%

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

59%-9DATA PRIVACYSUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE+30

24% 25%
+1

21

7.0

MANUFACTURING
The need to protect employees and ensure ongoing production is forcing manufacturing organizations
to start new projects, including digital transformation and education of IT personnel, which were not
top-10 priorities 6 months ago. They also shifted their focus away from data privacy and automation of
IT processes.
NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

82%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
69%

+13

DATA SECURITY
58% 59%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEESDIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

+1
14%

45%

N/A
35% 36%

INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS+1
32%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

46%

14% 27%21% 27%+6

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
18%

-14

+13

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL

22

+31

36%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTUREDATA PRIVACY

82%

44%

-26

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITY

RETAIL & WHOLESALEIn the retail and wholesale sector, the importance of data security decreased a bit, but remains one of
the top two tasks for these IT teams in 2020. The importance of data privacy increased from 30% to50%. Education of IT employees, which wasn’t a priority before, crept into the top 10.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

93%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
79%

-12

DATA SECURITY48%

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

30%

57%

57%

43%

INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS50%DATA PRIVACY43%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES36%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

36% 43%
CLOUD MIGRATION
26% 36%
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION4%EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL

91%

36%

65%

+9

+14

+20

-22

N/A

-7

+10
+32

23

8.0
2.0

TOP 10IT PRIORITIESBY JOB ROLE

24
24

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITY

IT/SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORInterest from IT/system administrators in automating manual IT processes has dropped
significantly since the pandemic began. However, we see increased interest in educating IT
personnel, which grew from 21% to 39%.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

79%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
76% 78%+2

DATA SECURITY
51% 52%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES+139%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSESEDUCATION OF
IT PERSONNEL

59%
-20

21%

39%

+18

38% 44%-6

DATA PRIVACYSUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

37%
N/A
28% 30%-2

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

24% 33%-921% 30%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

-9
25
25

8.0

CIO/IT DIRECTOR
The focus of CIOs and IT directors shifted from optimization tasks, such as automation of IT
routines and integration of existing solutions, to network security and cybersecurity awarenessamong employees. We also noticed that interest in digital transformation has dropped to near thebottom of their IT priority list.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

67%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
43%

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

63%
+20

54% 59%-5DATA SECURITY
39% 50%DATA PRIVACYEDUCATION OF
IT PERSONNEL
AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSESSUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

20%

38%
33%

+11

+18
50%
-17

29%

N/A

29% 37%-8

CLOUD MIGRATION
29%

43%
-14

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONINTEGRATION OF
EXISTING SOLUTIONS
26

25%

44%
-19
26

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITYCISO
As expected, security executives remain focused on ensuring secure processes organization-wide,
which includes network security, data security and cybersecurity awareness training. However, data
privacy has plummeted; before the pandemic, more than half of these executives named it as a toppriority, but now it does not even make it into the top ten.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

90%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
70%

-20

DATA SECURITY
62% 65%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES+3
33% 40%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONIT TALENT ACQUISITION
IMPLEMENTATION OF
AI-BASED SOLUTIONSEDUCATION OF
IT PERSONNEL

90%

12%

35%

13%

35%

+23

+22

30%

7%

+7

+23

30% 44%-14

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONSAUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

25% 28%
-3
20%

46%
-26
27
27

9.0

TOP 10IT PRIORITIESBY REGION

28

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITYNORTH AMERICA
Organizations in North America remain focused on everything security and privacy related. There has
been a sharp decrease of interest in both automating IT routines and migrating to the cloud. Now
that many organizations have increased their consumption of cloud services, support of the cloudinfrastructure and education of IT personnel now rank in the top 10 concerns.
NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

77%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
75% 76%-1

DATA SECURITY
54% 54%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

039% 44%-5

DATA PRIVACY36%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES35%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE
19%

32%

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL

54%

-18

N/A

+13

31% 32%-1

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
INTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

27% 32%-5
21%

CLOUD MIGRATION

41%

-20

29

9.0

EMEA
In EMEA, data security and cybersecurity awareness among business users remained core tasks, with
network security rounding out the top three IT priorities. Digital transformation and integration ofexisting solutions both dropped in the rankings.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

79%

NETWORK SECURITY

N/A

71% 72%+1

DATA SECURITY
50% 51%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES+1
41% 43%+2

DATA PRIVACY34%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

N/A
34%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSESINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

49%

32% 41%
26% 30%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONREGULATORY COMPLIANCE

30

26%

-9
+4

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
26%

-15

44%

34%

-18

-8

IT TRENDS 2020 : RESHAPED REALITY

APAC
APAC is the only region that sees data security as more important than network security. Alsointeresting is that digital transformation remains important, actually growing from 47% to 55%. Interestin AI-based solutions has faded away.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

80% 85%DATA SECURITY

67%

NETWORK SECURITY

47% 55%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION40%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

52%

+5
N/A

+8

+12

45% 47%DATA PRIVACY-2
39%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

33% 40%

CLOUD MIGRATION30%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTUREEDUCATION OF IT PERSONNELREGULATORY COMPLIANCE

7%

30%

22% 27%

55%

-16

-7

N/A

+23
+5

31

10
2.0

TOP 10IT PRIORITIESBY COUNTRY

32
32

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITY

THE UK
The top priorities for IT pros in the UK were network security and data security, with cybersecurity
awareness among employees leaping from 39% to 69% to round out the top-3 list. We also noticed
a significant decrease in the number of organizations that consider digital transformation a toppriority — from 57% before the pandemic to 20% now.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

73%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
71% 74%-3

DATA SECURITY
39%

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

69%
+30

30%

60%
+30

DATA PRIVACY40%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

70%
-30

30% 35%+5EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
22%

52%
-30

CLOUD MIGRATIONINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

20%

35%
-15

20%

57%

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

-37
18%

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

39%
-21
33

10

FRANCEFrance is the only country surveyed that prioritized data security over network security. It was also
the only country among all represented in the report that named education of IT personnel as oneof the top three priorities; 6 months ago, that task was not in the top 10. Digital transformation
dropped from the top of the list at 88% to ninth at 27%.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

73% 75%-2

DATA SECURITY
55%

N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
7%

56%
+49

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL
25%

45%
+20

DATA PRIVACY36%

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

50%
-14

36%

4%

+32

CLOUD MIGRATION
13%

34%

IT TALENT ACQUISITIONSUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

+21
27%
N/A
27%

88%
-61

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONAUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES
34

18%

63%
-45

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITYGERMANYFor German organizations, automation of IT processes still remains among top three priorities. The
education of IT personnel has increased from 11% pre-pandemic to 43% now, which is the mostsignificant shift across the priorities we analyzed for this country. The number of organizations
planning to allocate resources to digital transformation has halved; that task has been put aside to
free up resources for more burning needs, such as network and data security.
NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

79%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
64%

100%

DATA SECURITY

-36
57%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

67%
-10

43%

CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES

78%
-35

43%

11%
EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNEL

+32
29%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

N/A
27%

56%

DATA PRIVACY-29
11% 27%

CLOUD MIGRATION

+16
25%

-31

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION5%IT TALENT ACQUISITION

56%

24%
+19
35

10

UNITED STATESIn the United States, security and privacy-related activities remain critical. We also see a sharp
decrease in interest in cloud migration, along with a sharp increase in focus on supporting cloudinfrastructure. There is a slightly higher interest in regulatory compliance, which might be caused
by CCPA enforcement.

NOW

PRE-PANDEMIC

DIFF

76%
N/A

NETWORK SECURITY
74% 75%-1

DATA SECURITY
54% 55%CYBER SECURITY AWARENESSAMONG EMPLOYEES-1
40% 44%-4

DATA PRIVACY36%

SUPPORTING CLOUDINFRASTRUCTURE

N/A
33% 36%+3

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
34%

AUTOMATING MANUALIT PROCESSES

55%
-21

20%

30%
+10

EDUCATION OF IT PERSONNELINTEGRATION OF EXISTING
SOLUTIONS

29% 31%-2
24%

CLOUD MIGRATION
36

40%
-16

11

IT TRENDS 2020: RESHAPED REALITYSURVEY DEMOGRAPHICSGEOGRAPHY

North America

45%

EMEA

35%
APAC

South America

16%

4%

ORGANIZATION
SIZE
1–100 employees

31%

101–1,000 employees

39%

1,001–5,000 employees

12%5,001–10,000 employees

6%

10,001–50,000 employees

7%

50,001+ employees

5%
10

20

30

40

50
37

11

TOP INDUSTRIES REPRESENTED

IT PRIORITY OPTIONS OFFERED IN THE SURVEY

Technology/Managed Services

11%

Manufacturing

10%

Technology/Software

10%

Banking & Finance9%

Education

7%

Healthcare

6%Consulting

6%

Government

6%Services

5%

Retail & Wholesale

4%

Insurance

3%

Energy3%Technology/Hardware

3%

Telecommunications

3%

Entertainment & Leisure3%

Construction & Engineering

2%

Network security
Data security
Cybersecurity awareness among employees
Data privacy
Automating manual IT processes
Supporting cloud infrastructure
Education of IT personnel
Integration of existing solutions
Regulatory compliance
Digital transformation
Cloud migration
IT talent acquisition
Implementation of AI-based solutions
Other, please describe

TOP JOB TITLES REPRESENTED

40

30%
30

22%

19%

20
10

10%

9%

8%
2%

0

38

IT/Systems Administrator

Consultant

IT Manager

IT Audit Officer

CIO/IT Director

Other

CISO

ABOUT THE REPORTThe report is brought to you by Netwrix Research Lab, which conducts industry surveys among IT pros worldwide todiscover up-to-date interests and granular trends’ analysis of the industry. For more reports, please visit:www.netwrix.com/go/research

ABOUT NETWRIXNetwrix makes data security easy by simplifying how professionals control sensitive, regulated and business-critical data, regardless of where it resides. Over 10,000 organizations worldwide rely on Netwrix solutions to securesensitive data, realize the full business value of enterprise content, pass compliance audits with less effort andexpense, and increase the productivity of IT teams and knowledge workers.
Founded in 2006, Netwrix has earned more than 150 industry awards and been named to both the Inc. 5000 andDeloitte Technology Fast 500 lists of the fastest growing companies in the U.S.
For more information, visit www.netwrix.com

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