Let me answer with a different approach, from a business point of view:
1. Limited resources due to tighter budgets and cuts to IT staff
2. Limited tools/upgrades/utilities due to tighter budgets and cuts
3. Following the "doing more with less" perception, while Network Admins shine their brightest by being pro-active/preventing problems from occuring, due to tighter budgets and cuts, I have seen most clients move from being proactive to being REACTIVE at administration and support.
4. Perception of IT as a utility - think of an electric company. If you flip the switch and the light goes on, you did your job (as expected). But the one time the light goes off, whoa! Negative results. Very hard to evaulate performace with the business viewing IT as a utility. Relates to the business not understanding the value of IT(not understanding the value of a light switch and the power company behind it). The network is a classic example, cause everyone expects it to "just work," and most of the business (in most companies, not all) hasn't a clue as to how it works, nor what it takes to support it.
5. I'll keep this one technical and agree with answers 1 and 2. New threats from both internal and external resources. As technology improves, so do the types, methods and ways to attack. As a result, the importance of my #1 and #2 are even higher. Harder to keep up with all the patches, upgrades, and education of the threats, which means current resources (what's left of them) have to educate themselves and find ways to protect against those new threats, but without having the funding (or limited funding) to do so.
I hope this helps. Of course this is not the case for all companies, just a general view from my experience as a Consultant who deals more with Sr/Exec management. Ironic how most of my information comes form the resources "in the trenches" (miss being there). Iroinic that the information I gather FOR those execs is from their own people.
