Editorials

Budget For Long Term IT Resources

Why can’t we budget to replace IT Systems? This is a common problem for many companies. They are willing to purchase many things to make their business run. But, it is difficult to absorb the cost of those resources that have a shorter duty cycle. A manufacturer can purchase a CNC machine, and have reasonable use if operated properly for many years. Software, on the other hand, tends to be obsolete when it ships.

Let’s say you just look at one expensive product you get completely configured, and it took lots of hours, distractions from the business, money, and more to get it working. So you really need to get the most out of that investment. It is core to your operations, so you protect it, complementing it with other packages rather than deploying new releases with new features. This can work for quite a while.

After a while, you can’t buy anything to compliment your old application anymore. Technology has moved on. You can’t buy new applications running on green screens that do the kinds of things you want. In fact, you find it very difficult to connect the old technology with the new technology. It’s like trying to run a DC motor on AC current. Things don’t just work. The connectivity takes too much time to resolve.

In my opinion, we need to treat our IT resources much the same as we would any resource with a shorter duty cycle. Or more accurately, treat it as if it has a shorter duty cycle. Because many projects take years to implement completely, you can’t turn over your systems every year or two. However, the cost of not moving forward with technology, and actually budgeting for that cost, can result in massive risk.

Here’s a great example (read as war story). I remember a company that had a firewall running on a desktop PC that had been in place for 10 years. The firewall software was ok and handled attacks for the most part. However, the machine was a PC using hardware that was 10 years old. You could not purchase parts, and there was no backup system. When the hard disk crashed, we had no firewall, and the whole business was offline until it could be replaced, because you couldn’t purchase parts to repair it.

In my experience, the more often you do something, the better you become at doing it. If you upgrade your IT systems every 5 to 10 years, you’ll be lucky to still have people around who were part of the last upgrade. Wait even longer, and you’re not going to be able to figure it out without a massive impact to the business.

You get your teeth cleaned regularly to watch for new problems. You have your car maintained on a regular basis. Why should our IT resources be any different.

Just saying.

Cheers,

Ben