Sydney, AUSTRALIA — July 30, 2025 — SolarWinds, a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software, today released its 2025 IT Trends Report, “Fragile to Agile: The State of Operational Resilience”. The report draws insights from more than 600 IT professionals globally – including in Australia – and reveals a growing confidence in operational resilience, despite day-to-day issues continuing to consume resources.
The report findings show that 90% of Australian organisations consider themselves at least ‘moderately’ operationally resilient, but just one in three (38%) feel ‘very resilient’ today. This confidence comes at a time when regulators are placing increased scrutiny on operational risk management, particularly through CPS 230—a new standard that requires heightened operational oversight for financial services and adjacent sectors.
When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), 72% of Australian organisations feel they are effectively managing new and emerging AI challenges. While positive, it trails the global benchmark (83%) – suggesting Australian businesses may be slightly behind the curve on AI readiness. In contrast, Australians are leading globally in addressing remote and distributed workforces (over 90% feel effective) and cyber threats (nearly 85% feel effective) – signalling mature, post-pandemic resilience in these areas.
Despite these strengths, 45% 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.
When asked about their biggest challenge to operational resilience, crucially nearly half (45%) of Aussie businesses cited processes, followed by staffing challenges (32%) and then technology gaps (23%). This is consistent with global trends but underlines that structural and workflow issues – not just technology limitations – are slowing down resilience gains.
“This report reinforces what we consistently hear from customers across Australia,” said Rahul Tabeck, Country Manager and Sales Director at SolarWinds ANZ and Pacific. “There’s clear optimism around operational resilience, with local businesses investing time and budget into it – especially as regulatory frameworks like CPS 230 raise the bar. But many teams remain stuck in reactive mode. Technology alone isn’t enough – it must be supported by skilled people, the right expertise and processes. To shift from firefighting to innovation, without compromising reliability, organisations need to embrace new ways of working.”
The Building Blocks to Operational Resilience
Despite hurdles, Australian IT teams are taking a proactive approach and investing heavily into operational resilience, with nearly two thirds (65%) of businesses devoting up to 30% of their IT budgets to disruption prevention.
While technology plays a crucial role, resilience is just as much about mindset and process. Over a third (35%) of Australian IT professionals say operational resilience has a ‘great’ impact on their job satisfaction and security, underscoring its importance beyond technical performance. What’s more, nearly three-quarters of Australian respondents (72%) also rate preparedness for future IT challenges as very or extremely important.
“In today’s competitive environment, operational resilience is no longer a nice-to-have but rather a strategic imperative,” said Cullen Childress, Chief Product Officer. “Achieving it requires more than just adopting new technology. Organisations must equip their IT teams with the right tools, workflows, and talent to stay agile and responsive. When obstacles are removed and resilience is built into daily operations, IT becomes a true driver of competitive advantage.”
To explore the full findings and learn how your organisation can build stronger operational resilience, download the report at https://www.solarwinds.com/campaign/it-trends
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About SolarWinds
SolarWinds is a leading provider of simple, powerful, secure observability and IT management software built to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation. Our solutions provide organizations worldwide—regardless of type, size, or complexity—with a comprehensive and unified view of today’s modern, distributed, and hybrid network environments. We continuously engage with IT service and operations professionals, DevOps and SecOps professionals, and database administrators (DBAs) to understand the challenges they face in maintaining high-performing and highly available hybrid IT infrastructures, applications, and environments. The insights we gain from them, in places like our THWACK community, allow us to address customers’ needs now and in the future. Our focus on the user and our commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT management have established SolarWinds as a worldwide leader in solutions for observability, IT service management, application performance, and database management. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.
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