Will the IT people hate my idea with the burning intensity of 1,000 suns?
Yes. They see it as a trespass into their territory. They feel that everything on the network should be in their control.
What can go wrong?
How long is a piece of string? You won't know what will go wrong until it happens.
What are the objections I will face?
The main objections you will face from the IT department will be:
* They don't want to administer another machine on which everyone has access, it's a support nightmare.
* They will want to vet every piece of code on it, because they will want to know what it's doing, and any "potential security problems".
* "People will start relying on the tools which are on it, and then when it breaks down, we'll have to fix stuff we know nothing about."
* "What happens if one of your scripts/CGIs/whatever goes haywire and starts spamming/DOSing other machines?" Or similar complaints about unforseen/unpredictable behaviour.
* Lack of control. You could easily end up with multiples of everything and nobody would know.
Basically, IT departments don't like giving anybody open-slather access to anything.
Having said all of that, I can't give you any advice on how to get around it. I'm usually on the IT deparment's side in these arguments.
Perhaps your best course of action is to run the stuff on your own machine, without making it available to all. If it gets your job done quicker and easier, that's really all that matters, isn't it?