As a case in point, 45% of EMEA IT leaders still spend a quarter of their working week resolving critical issues and service disruptions. This suggests a disconnect between how organisations see themselves and what happens day-to-day when disruptions occur.
SolarWinds, a global leader in secure IT management and observability software, has released its highly anticipated 2025 IT Trends Report, titled “Fragile to Agile: The State of Operational Resilience.” The study surveyed over 200 IT professionals across EMEA, uncovering a major disconnect between perceived operational resilience and the reality of ongoing IT disruptions.
While 89% of IT leaders across EMEA claim their organizations are resilient, only 34% feel “very resilient” in practice. A staggering 45% of respondents report spending a quarter of their workweek addressing critical IT issues and service outages, indicating that IT downtime and inefficient workflows remain widespread challenges.
“Despite significant digital transformation and IT modernization in the Middle East, resilience isn’t achieved through investment alone. Without agile workflows, automation, and skilled IT talent, organizations remain stuck in firefighting mode instead of driving innovation,” said Abdul Rehman Tariq Butt, Regional Director – Middle East at SolarWinds.
“Operational resilience is now a strategic necessity,” added Cullen Childress, Chief Product Officer at SolarWinds. “It’s not just about adopting new tech—it’s about giving IT teams the right tools, automated workflows, and staffing to proactively manage risk and accelerate growth.”The report highlights that manual processes, not technology, are the biggest barriers to IT agility. Over 35% of IT teams cited cumbersome internal workflows as the top roadblock to resilience, while 38% blamed staffing shortages as a contributing factor to operational vulnerabilities. On a positive note, 25% of surveyed organizations now allocate 21–30% of their IT budgets toward disruption prevention, showing a growing commitment to embedding IT resilience into daily operations.
