According to new research released today by Opengear, 86% of U.S.-based CIOs surveyed expect at least 25% of their network engineers to retire in the next five years.

The networking industry is facing a skills shortage as engineers continue retiring. Almost every CIO (95%) surveyed said that a shortfall in engineers has led to an inability to manage networks, and 91% of U.S. engineers and 81% of global engineers surveyed agree with this. Additionally, 79% of U.S. CIOs state that they are now struggling to meet user or customer expectations in today's economic environment.

The Opengear study surveyed 502 CIOs and 510 network engineers across the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Australia. It shows that 98% of U.S. engineers surveyed have been forced to achieve more with fewer resources over the past three months, which is even higher than those in the U.K. (88%) and globally (87%). To remedy this issue, both surveyed CIOs (61%) and engineers (62%) identify investment in automation, AI or other emerging technologies as vital to addressing the tech skills shortage, along with remote/hybrid working capabilities (47% of CIOs and 37% of engineers).

"As skills shortages persist, technologies such as Smart Out of Band can empower under-pressure IT teams to flexibly deploy, manage and remediate business networks, allowing them more time to focus on critical network tasks for better business performance and improved customer satisfaction. Reliable remote access also means that businesses can securely manage their IT networks from any location with a hybrid workforce," said Gary Marks, President at Opengear.