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Possibly, but I have been doing this for 15 years and my associate for about half that time. <br />
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If we need help (server setup, say) we contract for assistance. <br />
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Our customers (quite a few) are happy with the arrangment because everything they want gets done and they do not have full time staff
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50 - 100 people can normally work with one datacenter. Our clients do not work shifts. <br />
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<i> juniors .... more prone to work weekends and nights than seniors</i><br />
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I chuckled at that one. We do what it takes and get the job done. You cannot last for 15 years at this unless you really know what you are doing.
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Tossing in my two cents. &nbsp;I'd buy fifty to one as rough ratio for staff to IT staff... with an error term of all of it or so. &nbsp;:-)<br />
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I'd expect a large real estate office which contracts out for Office 365 or Google Apps, and has a cloud application for their core line of business program to have a ratio utterly unlike a call center which has an in-house software ACD, software defined telephone switch, and applications built and hosted in-house to service customers, with wide-area network links to partner networks to access to critical business applications.<br />
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You'll need to consider the different technologies which need to be supported, and as John Hurst indicated, sometimes you can bring in contractors to cover short term needs and to cover holes in specific expertise. &nbsp;Now possibilities in that realm have opened up in this era of cloud computing. &nbsp;You also need to consider what IT demands the business has. &nbsp;There isn't really a one-size fits all... &nbsp;I think the best you can do is find a business or type of business with similar needs, and baseline staffing from that, paying particular attention to differences your business may have.<br />
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(Actually, the fifty to one probably isn't too far off a call center/warehouse/fulfillme<wbr />nt house I worked for a couple decades ago... but wiring and the physical telephone switch was handled by the facilities department, the ACD and most of the call recording equipment was handled by the call center managers, and the software defined switch/ACD in a second call center was managed by contractors. &nbsp;All though, come to think of it... 50:1 was just for technical support. &nbsp;There were data center operators who also ran the larger printers for the warehouse/pickers, and programmers who were constantly making changes to the core business applications to handle new clients, updating screens, etc... which probably drove the number closer to 20 or 25:1... and that still discounts the three folks who I would call senior IT Managers.)<br />
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... well, for what it's worth.
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Carlos, the last comment is too general.<br />
It depends on the environment and complexity. <br />
A 24/7 environment means there is an on-call rotation dealing with covering 25/7. The first party that would be called is a junior, but an escalation goes to senior.<br />
In many cases it is on the senior to teach the junior who teaches the trainee........<br />
That breaks down when one fears the one below them are a threat to their position.<br />
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IT staffing presumably includes all those who would manage the sysytem, network as well as provide support to employees.<br />
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Which brings me back to the question posed, I think in summary of the other responses, there is no set ratio .<br />
When you say there are 100 employees in the operation, how many employees are on each hour of operation?<br />
Need usually is when a new one is added, a change in application is being contemplated/implemented.
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Looks like my answer has been interpreted the wrong way around, sorry if I didn´t made myself clear.<br />
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There is no ratio useful at all, since it depends in complexity of your infrastructure, your setup, work times and even your customer base.<br />
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I would say that try to stipulate this ratio is gonna be a bad metric in the best of scenarios.<br />
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I have been working in IT for 22 years, in that time I have worked for 9 different IT employers, and in every single company, the IT support staff number was different, not 2 companys are the same.<br />
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So the ratio is &quot;no ratio&quot;. Your company will finally have X IT staff, or as many as you company needs or can afford.
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<i>would mean 1 full-time person could maintain 150-200 computers.</i> &nbsp;&lt;--- This ties out with my observation that a part time consultant (my field) can look after 50 computers. Of course, requirements vary, but on average, that works out.
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Really great posts! , thank you all ;)
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A side note when talking about a ratio. &nbsp;Preparation, procedure and documentation can minimize your resource drain. &nbsp;We have manager notification guidelines, ordering checklists, setup procedures, new user orientation, new user documents, and if done correctly can eliminate most early requests.<br />
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Identify the tickets that repeat and start to address those issues up front rather than later.<br />
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It leaves you more time to surf Experts-Exchange &nbsp;:)
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@Fouad Maidine - You are very welcome and I was happy to help.
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Does anyone have any numbers on what's the &quot;best practice&quot; average of support people (IT) to employees in an organization if such statistics do exist &nbsp;? if not, what ratio's do you have ?<br />
<br />
Whether it is server to system administrator ratio ( &nbsp;Physical Or Virtual ) ,Network admins to Network Devices ratio ? &nbsp;Even support desk To users ration (1st Level/ or 2nd level Support .. ) &nbsp;...<br />
<br />
I know that this Question is too general to have a correct answer , but I suppose &nbsp;by at least looking at what others are doing One could clearly Define a Reasonable line Between Being Overstaffed &amp;&nbsp;Understaffed &nbsp;( Of course Depending on management Expectations &amp;&nbsp;Budget ...)...
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Does anyone have any numbers on what's the "best practice" average of support people (IT) to employees in an organization if such statistics do exist  ? if not, what ratio's do you have ?

Whether it is server to system administrator ratio (  Physical Or Virtual ) ,Network admins to Network Devices ratio ?  Even support desk To users ration (1st Level/ or 2nd level Support .. )  ...

I know that this Question is too general to have a correct answer , but I suppose  by at least looking at what others are doing One could clearly Define a Reasonable line Between Being Overstaffed & Understaffed  ( Of course Depending on management Expectations & Budget ...)...

Best practice on IT Staff Ratio ?

IT Administration is the processes and best practices for programming and development, and incorporates methodologies for managing activities and projects. Common methodologies include waterfall, prototyping, iterative and incremental development, spiral development, rapid application development, extreme programming and various types of agile methodology. The life-cycle "model" is a more general term for a category of methodologies, and a software development "process" a more specific term to refer to a specific process chosen by a specific organization.

IT Administration

Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. For large systems, the operating system makes sure that different programs and users running at the same time do not interfere with each other. The operating system is also responsible for security, ensuring that unauthorized users do not access the system. Operating systems provide a software platform on top of which other programs, called application programs, can run.

Operating Systems

Networking is the process of connecting computing devices, peripherals and terminals together through a system that uses wiring, cabling or radio waves that enable their users to communicate, share information and interact over distances. Often associated are issues regarding operating systems, hardware and equipment, cloud and virtual networking, protocols, architecture, storage and management.