Top 10 issues overloading IT managers

It only gets an honorable mention but Web management was talked about on this recent list of top 10 issues that are overloading IT managers. Web management refers to watching what employees are doing on the internet. It is one of those tasks that IT managers are increasingly being called on to do, but a job that most dislike doing.

IT Managers are increasingly overloaded these days and the common view is that they have more than enough on their plate without playing censor to an entire company. Yes, if someone's spending all their time looking at porn on the internet that's an issue for a company, but the prevailing view is that it's a problem in management, not in IT.

The only time the IT department should get involved is after a complaint, either from someone on the floor who's spotted what's going on or from a manager who's concerned about lost productivity.

As the article says:

The tasks of monitoring and managing web access has only become more difficult as interest in new web services has grown. Now, sites such as Twitter and Facebook aren't purely for consumers, and many companies also make use of them for promotion and customer relations.

This means that simply blocking everyone from these services is no longer possible, as they have become work tools.

At the same time, more and more new sites are popping up, more blogging platforms, social networks and casual gaming portals are emerging every day, making it far more difficult to keep up with what can and can't be blocked.

Then, on top of it all, there are the ever-growing ranks of malware infections and phishing scams connected to web applications and tools, making the risk of security breaches through the browser stronger than ever.

As such, the task of web management at the corporate level is becoming more complex and crucial at a most inopportune time.

There's definitely a need for tools like proxies to help in this new/old IT task.