How do IT managers cope with shrinking budgets and increased expectations? According to a recent Symantec survey … through automation. Seventy-one percent said the ability to automate tasks would benefit their schedule. This illustrates an important point. Many times, implementing new technologies can provide enough ROI to justify the extra expense. The trick is taking that leap by employing these technologies. The survey, originally released during ManageFusion 2009 Las Vegas, polled IT managers about the state of their departments and found that 44 percent cited less investment in new technologies and 41 percent cited less IT staff for critical issues. If that isn’t enough, another statistic from the survey highlighted just how strapped these departments are. According to respondents, 54 percent actively manage less than 60 percent of their IT assets. That means almost half of their assets regularly go unmanaged. As a result, it makes sense that 71 percent would benefit from automating tasks. Freeing up time from redundant activities would allow more time to ensure everything is running smoothly and help the reduced staff to maintain a functioning department. Virtualization was also a definite consideration for respondents. According to the survey, 74 percent are at least considering plans to implement endpoint virtualization. A panel of experts discussed the findings of this survey during a roundtable at ManageFusion. A video recording of this discussion is now available online at http://www.symantec.com/about/news/social-media-center-videos.jsp. An audio recording is also available at http://www.symantec.com/podcasts/detail.jsp?podid=b-virtual_roundtable_managing_it.