Many system administrator tasks are a repetitive drudge. Senior IT managers do not want to be doing such tasks on a day-to-day basis and would prefer to delegate these to junior staff or contractors from 3rd parties. However, they need to be confident that such tasks can be safely delegated by limiting the scope of the privilege granted to junior staff and outsiders. Quocirca’s research shows that 10% of organisations say they never delegate, whilst only 3% are confident to delegate all of their sys-admin tasks.

There are a number of issues that hold organisations back from delegating. These include not being able to restrict the range of devices the delegated individuals have access to, not being able to limit or control the time they have access for or not being able to confidently revoke the access rights once they have been granted.

No one issue stands out in particular, but if organisations are to be more confident when it comes to delegation of sys-admin, the ability to control these issues needs to improve. Tools that allow the granular granting of privileges for restricted periods of time will give organisations more confidence to delegate and free up the time of senior IT staff. 

To see the full research behind this and get a free copy of Quocirca’s report – “Conquering the sys-admin challenge” – go to http://www.osirium.com/alpha-files/wp