Please note: This post was written by Highlander prior to their rebrand to FluidOne Business IT - Sheffield.
Everyone wants the latest and greatest tech, but this isn’t always achievable. Businesses must pick and choose the most pressing areas for upgrade, and are well-versed in staggering refresh cycles to extend the value of their technology investments. But in recent years, as priorities have shifted in response to the Covid pandemic, changes in working practices, and ongoing economic uncertainty, organisations have had to be increasingly pragmatic around technology refresh timelines. That means continuing to make do with significant areas of their core infrastructure that may otherwise have been upgraded. While there are benefits to sticking with the familiar solutions that you know, the impact of continuing with legacy infrastructure is now being felt.
Many are now reaching a tipping point where legacy infrastructure is starting to hold their business back. As such, there is now a push to re-focus priorities and address major IT projects that remained on the back burner, including areas of their core infrastructure. If you’re unsure as to whether you need to consider making an upgrade, there are some tell-tale signs that your legacy infrastructure may be negatively impacting your business.
1) Performance isn’t up to scratch
The performance of your infrastructure can only be truly judged against the needs of your business, and as your infrastructure ages, those expectations fluctuate and evolve. Technology that was once fit for purpose, and is even still operating at a good level, may now fail to measure up against current demands. That’s before we consider the impact of technology reaching End of Support deadlines, where a lack of new updates or enhancements prevents the addition of new capabilities.
- Does your network have the bandwidth to support remote working and the use of SaaS apps?
- Are you regularly encountering capacity challenges with your storage architecture?
- Are several of your internal systems now slow and frustrating to use?
All of these issues are symptomatic of outdated hardware that is no longer meeting the needs of your business today, impacting the wider productivity of your teams and hampering the successful pursuit of business goals.
2) You’re increasingly vulnerable to security threats
Protecting your people, data and systems is never far from the top of an IT team’s agenda. As cybercriminals find new and sophisticated exploits to capitalise on potential vulnerabilities, continuing with legacy infrastructure leaves you at increased risk.
Even organisations that have dedicated security teams and innovative protections are left exposed by outdated technology. This could be because an existing solution has reached End of Support and is no longer receiving security patches, or that it isn’t compatible with modern security practices such as multi-factor authentication and single sign-on. Regardless of the specifics, if you’re increasingly dedicating time and resources to identify and resolve security issues that emerge from an area of your legacy infrastructure, it might be time to consider investing in a refresh before you suffer a significant breach.
3) Transformation opportunities are limited
Any ambitious business will want to grow and develop, and this is often tied to successful transformation. But the presence of legacy technology can present an unwelcomed blocker to the adoption of new innovations that ultimately stunts business growth. Whether it’s because an existing on-premise solution can’t support new software deployments, or that limited bandwidth is hampering the experience for cloud apps and services, failure to upgrade legacy infrastructure will see the processes and systems deployed across your business fall behind those used by others.
Only with the deployment of new infrastructure, specifically solutions with the functionality and scalability to support sudden changes in demand, can you create a platform that helps you capture transformation opportunities when they arise.
4) The costs are stacking up
Many organisations choose to keep legacy infrastructure in place because they believe continuing with what they have is more cost-effective than finding a replacement, and this is often true. Replacing core infrastructure is no small undertaking and typically requires significant investment. But overtime, as legacy solutions continue to age, they become less and less cost-effective, and can start to add new operating costs that tip the scale. As performance degrades, your technology becomes prone to more frequent downtime. This maintenance and overarching administration uses up IT time and resources that could be spent elsewhere. Older hardware and solutions are also less efficient, with higher power demands and cooling requirements that increase that cost of day-to-day operation. There’s also the cost of lost productivity, where slow performance and poor experience hamper the effectiveness of your team.
Eventually, every business will encounter a tipping point, where the cost of continuing with legacy infrastructure becomes higher than the cost to replace, especially when the total cost of ownership (TCO) is considered.
Ready to refresh? Do it on your terms
Whatever area of your infrastructure you may be looking to address, it’s important to keep in mind that this doesn’t have to be a complete rip and replace.
Our team can help advise on the best solution and outline a refresh plan that ensures the smooth and seamless onboarding of new technology at your own pace, without compromising the performance or operation of your business.
Want to see some examples? Check out our case studies to see how we’ve helped other businesses capitalise on the latest innovations, with cost-effective refreshes of their core infrastructure.
If you’d like to know more about what we can do to help with your infrastructure, get in touch with the team.
