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Susan FogartyInformationWeek Reports

Susan Fogarty is a content professional with two decades of experience writing and editing for IT pros, especially those deeply involved in enterprise infrastructure. As director of content for the Interop conference and editor at Network Computing and InformationWeek, she combines written, multimedia, and live content to deliver a wide variety of educational resources to those working in IT. Previously, Sue spent 11 years at TechTarget, six as the Editorial Director of its Networking Media Group, pioneering tech publishing via the burgeoning internet. She also served as Editor in Chief of Dell’s publication covering emerging technologies for midsized customers.

Sue is a self-confessed ice cream addict, clean freak, and dog lover, and lives with her family in a quiet lakeside community in New Hampshire.


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SUM

MAR

Y Demand for technology professionals is at record levels, but that opportunity is bypassing many who work in the field of infrastructure. The trend toward technologies like cloud, soft-ware-defined and converged infrastructure is commoditizing roles for those who work with hardware and trickling down into their pay.

In fact, according to the InformationWeek US IT Salary Survey, median salaries for networking and data center professionals are actually decreasing. Staff-level employees reported median annual base salaries at $80,000, for a significant 4.7% decrease compared to our last survey in 2014. Infrastructure managers fared better, reporting median annual base salaries of $96,000, for a 2% decline in the past two years.

Respondents recognized the effects of a changing industry and emphasized a growing need for education. When asked what specific skills they planned to learn in 2016, 52% of staff-level respondents and 48% of managers chose security as their number one priority. Staff-level em-ployees also cited network engineering and operations (36%), cloud integration (28%), wire-less (20%), and data storage (19%). Those at the management level chose leadership skills (37%), project management (31%), cloud integration (30%), and business skills (21%).

Despite the challenges facing today’s infrastructure professionals, they remained optimistic. Nine out of 10 respondents said they feel a career in IT is as secure or more secure than most other careers, and 71% of managers and 61% of staff reported they are satisfied or very satis-fied by all aspects of their job.

In this report, we examine the transitions taking place in IT infrastructure and how they affect those working in networking and data center environments. We’ll explore how infrastructure pros are currently spending their time, how that meshes with technology trends reshaping IT, and how acquiring new skills can help them stay relevant.

EXECUTIVE


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SYNO

PSIS

RESEARCH

ABOUT USInformationWeek Reports’

analysts arm business

technology decision-makers

with real-world perspective

based on qualitative and

quantitative research, business

and technology assessment

and planning tools, and

adoption best practices

gleaned from experience.

Survey Name 2016 IT Infrastructure Salary Survey

Survey Date April 2016

Region North America

Number of Respondents 450 networking and data center management professionals, comprised of 248 staff-level and 202 management-level job functions

Purpose To track IT salary and compensation trends among IT infrastructure professionals, and to measure various aspects of compensation, benefits and job satisfaction.

Methodology The survey was designed by Network Computing and fielded online. Email invitations with an embedded link to the survey were sent to qualified IT professionals from UBM databases in late 2015 and early 2016. Unemployed and part-time workers were exclud-ed from these results, as were respondents from outside the United States. Median calcula-tions, rather than mean or average figures, are used for salary, salary changes, and other areas to eliminate distortions caused by extremes at the high and low ends of responses.

2016 IT Infrastructure Salary Surveyreports

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The tech job market is a fickle beast. Headlines scream of unending opportunity, encouraging anyone with a laptop to learn to code. Software startups are offering juicy perks like sign-on bonuses, gourmet lunches, and gym member-ships to attract developers and sometimes en-tire development teams.

At the same time, commoditization is rearing its head in on the operations side of the house. The new professional ideal is the “full-stack en-gineer,” one who is adept at everything from racking and stacking to automation scripting. The value placed on software skills and the trend toward technologies like cloud, soft-ware-defined, and converged infrastructure has been pushing focus away from hardware, and infrastructure pros can now feel the ef-fects where it hurts — in their paychecks.

This year’s InformationWeek US IT Salary Survey found that median salaries for net-working and data center professionals actu-ally decreased this year, after seeing small gains in our 2014 survey. We polled 450 in-frastructure-oriented IT pros with an average of 20 years of experience working in IT across

varying company sizes and industries. Our largest vertical segments were healthcare at 9%, followed by financial services, consult-ing, education, and government — all at 8%. Thirty-eight percent of respondents work in organizations with operating budgets between

$1 million and $50 million, but 9% have budgets over $10 billion. A large percentage of respon-dents hold degrees at the bachelor’s level or higher, totaling 62% for staff and 70% for man-agement. Sadly, an overwhelming 91% of our survey takers were male and only 9% female.

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Previous Next Shift from Software to Hardware Puts Pressure on Paychecks


Median Base Salary

Salary TrendMedian annual base salary

Note: Median salaries in thousands of dollars Base: 248 staff and 202 managers in 2016 Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

120

150

20142016 2012

Staff Management

$80

$96 $98 $97

$84$78

Change inBase Salary2014-2016

-4.7%Staff

-2.0%Management

Figure 1

reports

71%of managers are satisfied or

very satisfied by all aspects of

their jobs.

FAST FACT

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Salary SlumpWhen it comes to compensation, staff-level

employees reported median annual base sala-ries at $80,000, for a significant 4.7% decrease, compared to our results in 2014. Infrastruc-ture managers fared better, reporting median annual base salaries of $96,000, for a 2% de-cline in the past two years. (See Figure 1.) That comes on the heels of several years with small increments of growth for staff positions and flat salaries for managers as the US economy began recovering in 2010 from the Great Re-cession.

The picture is not completely dreary, how-ever. Our survey found that when you add bo-nuses and perks to the mix, overall compensa-tion at least remained level with our last report. Total compensation for staff members in 2016 was exactly flat at $88,000, and total comp for managers increased 1.9% to $106,000. (See Figure 2.) The greatest number of bonuses were based on personal performance (53%), corporate performance (35%), and company profit sharing (22%).

Many companies are looking at more cre-ative ways to keep employees happy, noted survey respondent Jonathan Harris, network

engineer at Northwest Pipe Company. “There seems to be greater focus on leveraging ben-efits to keep employees and draw talent to organizations. Two examples I have seen re-cently are expanded maternity leave and in-creased medical coverage,” he said. “There is

even a company in North Carolina that is giv-ing a Tesla Model 3 to employees.”

What else is causing salary stagnation? On a macro level, fewer new jobs are being cre-ated in infrastructure roles than in other ar-eas of IT. According to the Bureau of Labor

reports

Compensation TrendMedian total cash compensation; includes any bonuses and other direct cashpayments received in the past 12 months

Note: Median salaries in thousands of dollars Base: 248 staff and 202 managers in 2016 Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

120

150

20142016 2012

Staff Management

$88$88

$106 $104 $104

$80

Figure 2

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Previous Next Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition, average growth for the number of job titles it tracks for the period between 2014 and 2024 will be 7%. The BLS expects network and system administration positions to increase by 8%, just a tad higher than average. In contrast, software develop-ment jobs are projected to grow by 17%, in-formation security by 18%, and data research analysts by a whopping 30%.

It comes down to simple supply and de-mand. “Job roles requiring experience with specific tools and architectures that are in low supply but [in] high demand are seeing sal-ary increases,” said a senior project manager at a major technology firm. “Cloud, mobile, DevOps, and security are generating the new job opportunities in IT.” An IT manager who took the survey agreed, saying that his orga-nization is rewarding security specialists and developers with higher salaries and bonuses, while roles like server administrators get small increases if any.

Responsibilities ShiftThe Bureau of Labor Statistics report also

notes that while demand for network and

reportsImpact of New Technologies on Data CenterManagement WorkloadHow have the following new technologies affected your workload?

Base: 200 data center management professionals Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

Cloud computing

Virtualization

Data center consolidation

Converged infrastructure

Software defined networking

Software defined storage

Utility or unified computing

Green computing

22%44%

34%

43%24%

33%

31%39%

29%

23%49%

64%

28%

17%19%

57%

77%

65%20%

28%

12%

16%

11%

16%

Less work No impactMore work

Figure 3

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sys admins will grow as businesses invest in “newer, faster technology and mobile net-works,” an increase in cloud computing could raise productivity — especially in the case of networking professionals. The resulting land-scape would require fewer of them to do the same amount of work.

Our survey results illustrate that dynamic in some respect, although it’s clear that the is-sues are complex, with many interdependen-cies. When asked how newer technologies and trends are affecting their workloads, infrastruc-ture pros agreed that they have less work as a result of virtualization (chosen by 43%), consol-idation (31%), converged infrastructure (23%), and cloud computing (22%). (See Figure 3.)

Yet even larger percentages said they have more work because of cloud computing and converged infrastructure, the choice of 34% and 28% of respondents, respectively. Many other technologies that we think of as saving work, such as software-defined networking, are creating as much work as they save, if not more, according to our respondents. That may reflect the complexity of integrating these new initiatives with existing infrastructure, or be-cause new skills must be acquired to manage software-oriented and hybrid environments.

Traditional Tasks Losing ValueDespite all the advancements taking place

in data center and networking technology, our survey showed that more traditional tasks

are eating up a large part of infrastructure professionals’ time on a daily basis. Although there is a lot of talk in the industry about “moving up the stack,” three quarters of our

reports

Time Spent on Tasks: Networking Over the course of a typical workweek, how much of your time is spent on the following tasks?

Base: 247 networking professionals Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

Network troubleshooting

Network monitoring

Network security

Network design

Configuring devices

Performance tuning

Deploying new services

Some of my time Very little of my time No timeMost of my time

44%23% 26% 7%

41%22% 26% 11%

44%19% 26% 11%

35%14% 36% 15%

50%11% 29% 10%

36%9% 38% 17%

43%8% 38% 11%

23% 44% 26% 7%22% 41% 26% 11%19% 44% 26% 11%14% 35% 36% 15%11% 50% 29% 10%9% 36% 38% 17%8% 43% 38% 11%

Figure 4

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respondents identified “managing network and systems infrastructure” as the skill most critical to their jobs.

Ensuring the corporate network is up and running is an ongoing challenge that shows no signs of abating, even as programmatic net-works and automation creep into the picture. The networking professionals in our survey in both management and staff positions are mired in maintenance tasks rather than higher level duties. In a typical workweek, they re-ported spending the largest part of their time on network troubleshooting (the answer of 23%), followed by network monitoring (22%), and network security (19%). Network design was cited by 14%, and deploying new network services came in at only 8%. (See Figure 4.)

Those working in the data center gave more varying responses, perhaps due to the matu-rity of virtualization and an increased ability to manage workloads in that environment. Data center professionals reported spending the most time on systems management (chosen by 31%), troubleshooting (21%), and systems monitoring (20%). While data center managers also said they were devoting the most time to systems management, at 28%, they spend

reports

Time Spent on Tasks: Data Center ManagementOver the course of a typical workweek, how much of your time is spent on the following tasks?

Base: 200 data center management professionals Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

Systems management

Troubleshooting

System monitoring

Planning new services

Storage management

Personnel management

Virtualization management

OS/application patching

Performance tuning

Documentation/change control

Installing software

Installing OS's

Installing hardware

Some of my time Very little of my time No timeMost of my time

31%

21%

20%

16%

15%

15%

13%

7% 42% 31% 20%

7% 45% 31% 17%

5% 51% 38% 6%

5% 40% 37% 18%

4% 29% 40% 27%

2% 33% 40% 24%

37% 33% 17%

37%

34%

31% 17%

21% 30%

43% 31% 10%

47% 25% 8%

58% 16% 5%

48% 16% 5%

31% 48% 16% 5%21% 58% 16% 5%20% 47% 25% 8%16% 43% 31% 10%15% 37% 31% 17%15% 34% 21% 30%13% 37% 33% 17%7% 42% 31% 20%7% 45% 31% 17%5% 51% 38% 6%5% 40% 37% 18%4% 29% 40% 27%3% 33% 40% 24%

Figure 5


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significant time on tasks at a more strategic lev-el, including personnel management (26%) and planning new services (25%). (See Figure 5.)

Even accounting for those small variations, IT pros responding to our survey are experienc-ing salary decreases across the board. Harris explained the dynamic he is witnessing: “Tech-nology growth in areas like security, cloud, and converged infrastructures make the network admins and support techs of the past a com-modity,” he said. “There is an abundance of ‘IT professionals’ out there, but companies are dis-cerning their skills and paying them according-ly. The key players are the people correlating with the business and designing the solutions — the architects and analysts. I feel like that’s where the greater salaries are going.”

Nancy Jones, a system administrator at Vec-trus, agreed on the declining value of traditional IT roles. “The value of the seasoned veteran data center administrator seems to be decreasing,” she said. She also noted that the aging IT pop-ulation is causing “job creep” in which experi-enced employees are replaced with entry-level new hires or not replaced at all, their duties sim-ply absorbed by the rest of the team.

In our survey, both staff and management

reports

Training ValuedWhat type of training would you find most valuable in developing your career?

Note: Up to two responses allowed Base: 248 staff and 202 managers Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

Technology-specific training

Certification courses

Business skills training (e.g., finance, marketing)

People-management skills training

Project-management training

College courses (tech, business)

MBA

Statistics or analytics training/courses

Communication skills training

Other

ManagementStaff

23%23%

77%77%

7%7%

5%5%

12%12%

61%61%

63%63%

34%34%

23%23%

18%18%

13%13%

6%6%9%9%

2%2%8%8%

5%5%7%7%

6%6%5%5%

0%0%1%1%

31% 48% 16% 5%21% 58% 16% 5%20% 47% 25% 8%16% 43% 31% 10%15% 37% 31% 17%15% 34% 21% 30%13% 37% 33% 17%7% 42% 31% 20%7% 45% 31% 17%5% 51% 38% 6%5% 40% 37% 18%4% 29% 40% 27%3% 33% 40% 24%

Figure 6


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Previous Next titles reported an average of 20 years of IT ex-perience. And many have quite a history with their companies. The amount of time at their current employer was a median of nine years for staff and 11 years for managers. A large majority have worked for only one or two dif-ferent companies in the past 10 years — 74% for staff and 83% for management.

Training Is EssentialWhile longevity may not equate to compla-

cency, it’s always been a requirement for IT pros to keep technical skills current. That need may be accelerated now as the industry undergoes dramatic change. Don West, infrastructure lab manager at Systems Made Simple, pointed to cloud computing as the driver for that need. “If ‘old school’ infrastructure folks do not update their skills to the cloud skills that many com-panies are looking for, they are going to find themselves antiquated,” he predicted.

When asked what specific skills they planned to learn in 2016, survey respondents chose se-curity as their number one priority, at 50%. Staff-level employees also cited network engineering and operations (36%), cloud integration (28%), wireless (20%), and data storage (19%). Those

reportsNew Skills to LearnWhich of the following skills do you plan to learn about in 2016?

Note: Multiple responses allowed Base: 248 staff and 202 managers Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

IT security

Leadership skills

Project management

Cloud integration

Business skills

Network engineering/operations

Data storage

Wireless

Programming skills

Software-defined networking

Unified communications

Enterprise architecture

Data analytics

Mobile app development

Software-defined storage

System engineering/operations

IT service assurance

Application development

Voice engineering

DevOps

Other

52%

18%

15%

28%

12%

36%

19%

20%

14%

16%

14%

19%

8%

4%

13%

14%

6%

6%

6%

9%

2%

Staff Management

48%

37%

31%

30%

21%

19%

16%

15%

11%

11%

11%

10%

10%

8%

8%

8%

7%

6%

6%

5%

2%

Figure 7


reports


77%of staff chose technology-

specific training as most

desirable.

FAST FACT

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Previous Next at the management level chose leadership skills (37%), project management (31%), cloud integration (30%), and business skills (21%). In follow-up interviews, respondents also speci-fied they’d like more training in Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and agile project management. (See Figure 7.)

When it comes to the type of training re-spondents would like, the more technical the better. Seventy-seven percent of staff and 63% of managers chose technology-specific training as most desirable, followed by certi-fication courses at 61% for staff and 34% for managers. (See Figure 6.) Harris also pointed out the value of independent, technology-based training. “Vendor-specific training and certifications hold less value than training that gives me working knowledge of the underly-ing technologies and how they interact,” he said. “I wear many different hats. If I spend too much time and money learning how to work on one specific vendor’s system, something else will get neglected.”

Seven in 10 respondents reported attend-ing company-paid training or certification courses in the preceding 12 months. However, approximately 30% paid for training them-

selves, and 30% received no additional skills training at all. Fortunately, free training options exist for those will small budgets. West ex-plained that the growing demand for program-ming skills has led him to seek free education in that area. “It is for that reason I have been tak-

ing Massive Open Online Courses from Cours-era and EDx, as well as leveraging vendor train-ing webinars or hands-on labs,” he said.

Jones observed a reduction in employ-er-funded training as well. “It’s hard to get companies to foot the bill for training and

reports

Overall SatisfactionOverall, how satisfied are you with all aspects of your job, including compensation, benefits,and other aspects of your employment relationship?

Base: 248 staff and 202 managers Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

Very satisfied

Satisfied

Neutral

Dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

ManagementStaff

23%23%

16%16%19%19%

52%52%

21%21%

7%7%

1%1%

45%45%

25%25%

12%12%

3%3%

Figure 8


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education for techies. I’m trying to start a lo-cal professional development group so we can share knowledge and get experience that helps advance our careers,” she said. She not-ed that businesses will reason that they don’t want to pay to train employees who may then leave to work someplace else, but she opined, “That sounds like a lot of fried chicken.”

Job Satisfaction and SecurityDespite the challenges of the industry, 89%

of respondents said they feel a career in IT is as secure or more secure than most other careers. And a majority said they feel a career path in IT and the potential for salary advancement are as promising today as five years ago — 50% for staff and 57% for management. (See Figure 9.)

Overall job satisfaction rates were equally optimistic and have risen slightly since our last survey in 2014. Seventy-one percent of man-agers and 61% of staff were satisfied or very satisfied by all aspects of their job, including compensation, benefits, and other factors. In contrast, only 8% of managers and 15% of staff said they were dissatisfied or very dissat-isfied. To underline that point, a mere 10% of respondents related they are actively looking

for a new job with a different employer. (See Figure 8.)

Of course, a happy and productive work environment is the result of a combination of many factors. When asked, “What mat-ters most to you about your job?” the num-ber one response, predictably, was base pay. Ranked almost as high was company stability,

followed by having one’s opinion and knowl-edge valued, benefits, challenge of the job, job atmosphere, and flexible work schedule. Said one respondent, “There are lots of new opportunities in IT even if the salary is not go-ing up. Once you get to a certain point, money only goes so far.”

reports

Promising Career PathDo you believe a career path in IT and the potential for salary advancement are as promisingtoday as they were five years ago?

Base: 248 staff and 202 managers Data: InformationWeek 2016 US IT Salary Survey of 450 networking and data center management professionals, April 2016

Not as promising UnsureAs promising today

ManagementStaff

23%23%

50%50%38%38%

12%12% 7%7%

57%57%36%36%

Figure 9

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ConclusionIT has always been a demanding career,

requiring constant education and a list of certifications for those wanting to truly excel. However, new market dynamics focused on applications and services could be challeng-ing the wisdom of deep specialization, espe-cially for those working in networking and data centers. The answer is clearly additional

training and education, but becoming a full stack engineer is not a realistic goal for many, nor does it fit within the traditional IT depart-ments our survey respondents inhabit.

To remain relevant, infrastructure profession-als must understand exactly how they contrib-ute to their organizations’ success and how they can make even more of an impact. Com-panies are transforming to leverage newer and

better technology and need staff who can recommend platforms and products that can achieve their business goals. Perhaps an orga-nization needs faster production times, better customer data, or a more efficient salesforce. Technology is the key to solving these prob-lems, and technologists who contribute to the strategic as well as the technical discus-sion will likely find continued success.

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