I made the jump from IT with some software development to being a full time software developer about a year and a half ago, and couldn't be happier.

Software developers get to deal with the problem solving, while doing less of the day to day maintenance. Software developers are expected to automate their maintenance away, so there is almost no pressure to respond to the same inputs by perform the same actions. You also should get a project manager who should filter end user requests and enable you to focus on the real problems instead of peoples day to day issues.

If you're not interested in the coding side of things, consider going into web operations with a smaller but growing company. There is a whole class of mid size startups that have operations problems and need to get their developers out of it, or at least give their developers someone to help them with their problems. The people who are best at this are capable of writing code, but prefer the more nuts and bolts "what makes 'er tick" along with the pressures of real time consequences. At a web company that's growing the same pressures to automate/scale should drive out the tedium that comes with corporate IT.

A huge percentage of these jobs are located in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, which might be a downside if you're not willing to relocate.