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Superbowl or FIFA World Cup, Job Comes First For IT Men in USA And UK

June 22, 2010

(WORLD CUP TECHNOLOGY)
From healthcare to sports, all walks of our lives are governed by information technology. IT professionals are just like their counterparts in other professions and love to watch Super Bowl or World Cup Football on television. Have you ever felt insecure mulling over the consequences of IT personnel forgetting their job amidst all the frenzy about world’s biggest tournaments? Well, Tufin Technologies definitely did and went to the extent of conducting a survey in connection to its concern that the onset of the World Cup would cause the pace of global business to slow down to a crawl. The survey was conducted amongst 241 UK IT professionals and 263 U.S. IT professionals and the fact that stood out is: For the majority of the IT professionals on both sides of the Atlantic, job comes first.
           
Given the fanatic devotion of sports fans, Tufin's U.K. sample was asked: Should they experience a major IT disaster during the final of the World Cup, would they delay fixing the problem? Tufin's U.S. sample was asked the same question, but in regards to the Super Bowl. Remarkably, despite the fanatic devotion of football fans around the world, 87 percent of U.K. respondents said they would forego the match to fix the problem and 80 percent of the 263 U.S. respondents said they'd stop watching the Super Bowl to fix the disaster.
 
On both sides of the Atlantic, a small percentage of IT workforce---12 percent in the U.K. and 15 percent in the U.S.-- said they would continue to watch the game while leaving the organization to fend for itself. In the U.S., 3 percent of respondents were unsure of how they would respond.
 
U.S. respondents, who used LinkedIn's comments function, were not shy voicing their opinions. One IT professional stated, “Wow! I can't believe how many people would ignore a disaster... Maybe it is the fault of corporate management not educating their people on Risk Management and Business Continuity... ?” Another said, “Out of this poll 18 percent so far will get fired, I would love to know who they are to have them black listed in my IT outsource book.”
 
Here are some of Tufin's favorite responses, where respondents compared employment in the IT sector to military service: “Joining IT is the same as joining military services. You MUST hold off everything you are doing at the time of emergency,” said one.
“It's not just a job, it's an adventure,” said another.
 
Compare this with the findings recently released by the Chartered Management Institute, who questioned 700 British businesses and found they were worried the World Cup competition could cost “a fortune in lost production as employees take time off and waste time nattering about the tournament.” With the kind of picture of dedication emerging from Tufin survey, the U.K. business owners can rest assured, the next four weeks wouldn't cost them the predicted one billion pounds.
 
“Although there have been many reports of people skipping work to watch the matches, our study shows that many network defenders won't be taking their 'eye off the ball.' IT professionals have been busy preparing for this event in the months preceding the opening ceremony in South Africa, fully aware that there will be others within the organization that could disrupt or compromise the system by streaming video content, downloading apps and visiting websites -- some potentially, harbouring and injecting malicious code. By ensuring patches and policies are up to date and firewalls are fully optimized, the chances of having to choose between your job and your country's national pastime are minimized,” Tufin Technologies VP, Shaul Efraim summed up.

Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Juliana Kenny