Cheers to the IT Pro!

Today is the 4^th annual IT Pro Day, a day created by SolarWinds to recognize the IT pros that keep businesses up and running each and every day, all year long. As an IT pro, I personally know that no one ever stops by your desk to say “thanks” for the fact that everything is working as expected. No, people only contact IT pros for one of two reasons: either something is broken, or something might become broken. And if it’s not something you know how to fix, you’ll be expected to fix it, and fast. Nearly 70% of IT pros respond to one-off user requests daily. This amount of unplanned work leads to madness for mere mortals. The unplanned work doesn’t stop, either. IT pros are the first-level tech support for friends and family. Thanks to the ever-connected world in which we live, IT pros are responding to calls for help at all hours of the day. Put this all together and it is easy to understand the best IT pros are one-part Batman, one-part MacGyver, and three parts Dr. House. We respond to alerts when called, we fix things in creative ways, and we do it all while reminding you we “are almost always eventually right.” That’s right, IT pros can see the future. We know all viewpoints will eventually be consistent with ours. It is inevitable that there will come a point in time when your data will outgrow your current schema, code, and hardware. We know this because that’s been our normal ever since Codd invented databases. IT pros spend hours finding ways to automate away tasks. Automation is a great way to help reduce risk and recover from failures. It’s also a great way to help get some sleep at night, and on weekends. Maybe even spend time working in the yard, building a nice firepit, where we sit and relax for 5 minutes before we fix the neighbor’s Wi-Fi. We don’t do this for the money. We do this because we want what everyone wants: happy customers. With end users as our top priority, we want to help good people from making bad decisions. Sure, money helps, but that’s not our end goal. (But if someone in a corner office on the 4^th floor in Austin is reading this, I want to remind them that bacon makes for a great gift during the holidays.) Today is the day to say THANK YOU to the IT pro, and even give a #datahug to the ones that had enough time to shower before heading to the office. Cheers! Thomas LaRock The SolarWinds trademarks, service marks, and logos are the exclusive property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC or its affiliates.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.