With IT infrastructure technology continuing to evolve at almost breakneck pace, there are new offerings coming to market almost every day. Despite such a wide choice and constant advancement of technology, organisations are running critical applications on legacy technology running close to or beyond end of life, putting the business at risk.
There are often myriad financial and logistical reasons for persisting with older infrastructure, but this comes at the cost of performance, productivity and security. With hybrid cloud now a mature and established technology approach, infrastructure can be modernised in a much more straightforward fashion than in the past.
Having scaleable, flexible, fast, secure, highly available business applications supports you keeping ahead of the competition.
What problems can ageing IT infrastructure cause?
- Productivity issues
Old technology means slow systems, and slow systems can frustrate employees and customers alike. Quite simply, when an organisation’s IT infrastructure suffers from frequent lags and crashes, employees can’t do their job properly. Over time, this loss in productivity adds up, leading to unhappy customers and an impact on the bottom line. At a time when having modern, high-performing infrastructure is a necessity, businesses must ensure they don’t get left behind.
- Hardware failures
Like most things we use in our daily lives, the older something is, the more likely it is to break. IT infrastructure is no different in this respect. When important hardware fails, it can bring operations to a standstill and result in costly downtime and repairs. A common problem with older hardware is that parts are hard to replace as they are no longer being produced and can be expensive when eventually sourced. Reliability is crucial to meeting the challenges facing organisations in this day and age.
- Data corruption
Data is the lifeblood of modern businesses and ageing systems are often more prone to data corruption issues. Missing or incorrect data can compromise business leaders’ decision-making, leading to lost opportunities and damaged customer relationships. This should be a risk that no company is willing to take.
- Security flaws
93% of medium-sized businesses and 98% of large businesses report that cybersecurity is a high priority for senior management, showing that the issue is now one the biggest concerns for organisations across the UK, given the financial, legal and reputational damage a breach can cause. With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated in nature, older infrastructure is not equipped to handle the latest threats, leaving unprepared businesses vulnerable.
- Environmental impact
Sustainability has rightly become a much bigger focus for companies in the last few years. Technology usage makes up a significant part of organisations’ energy consumption, so ensuring infrastructure is as efficient as possible is a must. While the latest technology is being built with environmental considerations in mind, the same cannot be said for older models.
Making the shift to modern infrastructure
The first thing to consider when figuring out how to move on from ageing infrastructure is that the process need not be as costly or as cumbersome as it once was. By focusing on the right areas and implementing the appropriate new technology, organisations can make their IT estate much more reliable and efficient in a relatively short space of time.
The process should begin with a comprehensive audit of the company’s infrastructure, which includes an analysis of systems and workloads, and enables obsolete or unsecured hardware and software to be identified. From here, a plan can be put together to upgrade to newer, more efficient systems. Collaboration between internal IT teams and external partners is key to this process.
Hybrid cloud and the power of flexibility
Every business has different infrastructure configurations and different needs when it comes to modernisation. This is why hybrid cloud arrangements offer the flexibility needed to make IT transformation a success.
Through a hybrid cloud approach, businesses can run applications in public or private cloud, on-premises or in ‘edge’ locations, depending on individual requirements. Containerisation software is also useful in the modernisation process, as it makes the migration of applications and workloads from legacy infrastructure into the cloud much easier. Once the migration is complete, the management of much of the newer, more efficient and more secure infrastructure is carried out by external parties, lessening the burden on internal IT teams.
The flexible nature of hybrid cloud also ensures applications are instantly accessible from any location, whilst still enabling staff to work in an efficient, secure and compliant manner. This boosts productivity by enabling employees to work and collaborate in a way that suits them, and helps the environment by reducing reliance on commuting.
The overall environmental impact of a hybrid cloud system is also a positive. Hosting in the cloud has been found to reduce carbon emissions by 98% compared to on-premises alternatives, which can have a significant impact on a business’s carbon footprint and help them to meet their carbon reduction goals.
A more robust, efficient future for IT
Upgrade ageing IT infrastructure should be top of the agenda for any business leader. While it might seem like a daunting process at first, the tools and expertise to get the job done are widely available to all. By taking the steps to figure out where urgent attention is needed, and adopting a flexible approach to modernisation and cloud migration, organisations can maintain their productivity, efficiency and security for the years to come.
Legacy IT is more expensive
The added costs that often accompany legacy systems are staggering. By some estimates, legacy systems are costing organisations 10-15% more per year, just for maintenance alone. In some sectors, it has been revealed that 75% of the IT budgets are dedicated to maintaining existing systems. Aside from the physical monetary value of budgets being tied up in maintaining systems, you have also got to factor in the effort and time that either internal or outsourced IT teams will have to contribute to this. Every hour spent on maintenance will add to the total cost of ownership of the system. The long and short of this is the older the system, the greater the cost.
Leigh Gardner is Head of UK Account Management at Kyocera Document Solutions UK
