The Endless Resource Cost of IT Maintenance

The long-term cost of IT maintenance can almost always be traced back to short-term IT decision-making—especially when it comes to adding new features and integrations to your existing tech stack.

For organizations relying on legacy IT infrastructure, a patchwork approach to updating and enhancing this enterprise tech stack has always offered immediate benefits to the company. Quick fixes are easier to implement, cheaper to perform, and typically don’t disrupt the rest of your business technology and operations. And, if you’ve already taken the “quick fix” approach dozens of times in the past, you can make a clear business case for taking the path of least resistance.

Any potential “problems” created by this IT management strategy are often years away when changes are being implemented. There’s just one problem: if your organization has already been taking this path for years and years, the future has arrived—and it isn’t cheap.

After years of cutting corners with your enterprise IT maintenance, your company is likely finding itself trapped in a cycle of exorbitant IT maintenance costs from which the price to escape is even higher. Faced with a massive overhaul of your IT infrastructure or the price-gouging inflicted by your IT services provider, it’s once again easier and cheaper to pay the high service fees and kick bigger IT projects down the road.

But your IT costs are only getting higher, and your in-house IT’s workload is growing more daunting. Before you dismiss the prospect of overhauling your IT to migrate away from legacy and toward a holistic, cloud-based infrastructure, it’s important to understand the full spectrum of costs—direct and indirect—brought on by cumbersome legacy IT maintenance. Here’s a look at all the ways a legacy IT infrastructure can bleed your company of its time, money and other valuable resources.

Near-Constant Software Updates

Legacy IT infrastructures require endless updating and management to keep these disparate parts functioning on their own and as part of the larger IT ecosystem. A single update to one integration can cause a ripple of related updates and tasks related to other components of the enterprise tech stack.

All of these updates require the time and energy of your in-house IT department, which keeps those professionals from contributing to more value-added projects serving your organization. As the number of applications increases, so do the time and resource demands for managing this environment, which can lead to IT departments becoming overworked and understaffed.

The Inability to Operate at Scale

Both in-house and third-party IT management providers are subject to the time and resource constraints created by increased management needs. As your business grows, you need IT management services that become more efficient and scalable to support your organization.

Instead, a legacy IT infrastructure weighs down your growth efforts, compounding your IT resource demands and working in the opposite direction of the scalability you are trying to achieve.

Conflicts of Interest with IT Service Providers

Software service providers sell enterprise services based on your organization’s need for ongoing software support and maintenance. There’s just one problem: to make sure they stay in business, those providers need your organization to continue having software support and maintenance needs.

This creates an inherent conflict of interest: while your organization may look to those service providers to improve your IT management and performance, those companies would lose your business if they fully realized these goals. The subscription models set up by these service providers depend on an inherently flawed IT infrastructure, so enterprise clients should never expect these partners to provide permanent solutions to these IT pain points.

Continued Reliance on Proprietary Solutions

Does your legacy IT tech stack rely on proprietary software only the licensing company is able to service? If so, those same software service providers invested in your ongoing maintenance needs are also invested in keeping you on their branded platform.

Currently, most of these proprietary solutions can only be serviced by an authorized party, which puts business users at a distinct disadvantage: without market competition for these services, enterprise clients are at risk of overpriced services and a poor customer experience.

Such competitive disadvantages are one of the reasons why many businesses are pushing for “right to repair” legislation that will prohibit proprietary service limitations and expand this right to repair to a broader range of providers. But improved market competition and customer service are also among the benefits of migrating to cloud-based IT infrastructure for your business.

Enterprise IT is under constant pressure to deliver results quickly. From software updates to new integrations to new iterations of business software, speed is the metric and C-suite leaders love. But fast results come at a cost—especially when companies sacrifice sustainability and long-term value in favor of short-term results.

With the right third-party service management company, you don’t have to make this compromise. An experienced IT infrastructure partner can strategize an IT migration project that reduces costs, reallocates resources, and enables cost-effective transformation while preserving business continuity. Origina’s in-house experts can help you escape enterprise tech debt and realize the cost savings of a holistic, evergreen IT infrastructure.

Get in touch with us today to learn more.