Watching my daughter play soccer (football for you non U.S. readers) is always a weekend treat. She loves to play the goalie or “keeper”. It struck me how that role holds some similarities to IT.  If the team wins, the Keeper does not get the high-fives. And if the team loses, the goalie is the “one that lost the game.” IT staff face a similar challenge as being the unsung heroes for the team or company.

Today, that role is ever more challenging. If IT helps drive a killer private cloud strategy—fantastic—but if they are behind on this initiative, they are branded as the bottleneck in the process. From there, the grumbling starts and colleagues wonder what do all those people really do for us?

When I meet customers, many of them are borderline overwhelmed. Commonly, I hear them say “I just try to stay on top of the daily work, and if I am lucky, I get to work on a strategic project.”

That frequent lament is why new tools and tricks are needed to scale IT organizations.  While the Keeper doesn’t control all aspects of the game, their performance is key to the team’s success. Ultimately, the team must collectively perform well, but the Keeper controls a critical aspect of the game—the net—much like an IT staff holds responsibility for their key area of the organization.

IT can be the best “Keeper” because its main job is making certain nothing gets past them; they can put all of their energy into making certain nothing gets into the goal. If the goal represents ineffective IT performance, the defense should be…automation.  At Infoblox, we have that defense in the form of automation solutions, which are built to ensure IT does not miss the easy shots, swats away the corner kicks and keeps the ball on the other side of the playing field.