The demand for traditional server support roles has been shifting in recent years. While cloud, virtualization, and data center automation have undeniably streamlined IT operations, increased workloads brought on by AI and data analytics create a push-pull effect. Server support staffing needs will likely be harder to predict in the next few years.
Figure 1 from our full report, Server Support Staffing Ratios, shows the impact of conflicting priorities on the IT staff over the past five years. In 2022, there was a significant drop in the ratio of server support staff, which appeared to normalize the following year. However, server support personnel as a percentage of total IT staff declined at the median once again, from 7.1% in 2023 to 6.9% in 2024.
With the exception of 2022, the median server support staff has been flat or on a relatively small decline for the past five years. Server support staffing will be an interesting metric to watch in the coming years because the rest of the cloud migration is likely to continue at a slower but steady pace. Will the general increase in computing needs, with AI, IoT, blockchain, and other workload-intensive tech, mean an increased need for server support staff? Or will those jobs mostly stay inside hyperscalers as workloads continue moving to the cloud?
There are competing theories for what may happen next. On one hand, advancements in IT infrastructure, both on premises and in the cloud, have simplified management. Automation technologies, such as AI-powered tools for predictive maintenance and automated incident response, are increasingly handling routine tasks, allowing human resources to focus on more strategic initiatives. Additionally, some IT leaders find that on-premises infrastructure can be more cost-effective than public cloud, especially for large-scale systems with predictable transaction volumes. On the other hand, some companies are moving workloads back from the cloud to on-premises servers to gain tighter control or optimize performance, particularly where low latency or high throughput is required. It will be interesting to see how these factors influence server support staffing ratios in the coming years.
“Embracing automation, AI, and DevOps are key to optimizing productivity and server support,” said Waynelle John, research analyst for Avasant Research, based in Los Angeles. “But staffing correctly requires a strategic approach in which IT organizations must balance reducing server support staff with maintaining critical services.”
In this report, we use a broad definition of server support staff that covers most employees in the data center. The category specifically includes all personnel who support the server and storage infrastructure, whether data center or cloud infrastructure, including systems administrators, systems programmers, systems engineers, storage administrators, cloud architects, and facility engineers. It also includes computer operators, job schedulers, production control personnel, disaster recovery administrators, and other ancillary functions in the data center.
For this category, it is also important to understand who is excluded from the head count. Our count of server support staffing does not include database administrators, network support personnel, or communications system support personnel. Also excluded are IT managers, although shift supervisors and other data center managers are counted if they spend the bulk of their time doing the work instead of managing others.
To examine this important IT staffing question, we start with an assessment of how server support staffing has changed over time. Next, we provide four key metrics for benchmarking server support staff: server support staff as a percentage of the total IT staff, users per server support staff member, operating system (OS) instances per server support staff member, and physical servers per server support staff member. We provide these metrics for small, midsize, large, and very large organizations. We also assess how the industry sector can influence server support staffing ratios. We conclude with recommendations for improving server support productivity.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report, Server Support Staffing Ratios. The full report is available at no charge for subscribers, or it may be purchased by non-clients directly from our website. (Click for pricing.)