Deferred IT Maintenance Is a Ticking Time Bomb 186
snydeq writes "The underfunding of routine hardware replacement purchases and the degradation of aging enterprise apps pose systemic risk for many IT organizations, thanks to a ballooning 'deferred IT maintenance debt' in the decade since Y2K fears pushed enterprises to invest heavily in essential system upgrades, InfoWorld's Bill Snyder reports. And with sysadmins 'scrambling to keep systems up and running with budgets that barely cover the basics,' this 'IT debt' promises only to increase in the coming years, especially as IT continues to defer routine maintenance in favor of new 'cost-saving' initiatives, particularly around the cloud."
Re:It's a governance issue - plan and simple (Score:5, Informative)
Nail, head hit. I have worked for people who had bosses who had zero interest in anything other than cost. The same people that I lambast for putting basic security precautions as an extreme low priority, due to their attitude of "security has no ROI."
What is ironic is that even though this makes the quarterly figures look good, it is killing competitiveness long term. Another example is R&D. Not product research, but true R&D where people discover something, shrug, put it on a shelf for 20 years, then it becomes immensely marketable (think Corning and Gorilla Glass as the prime example of this.) Instead any groundbreaking research ends up being done overseas or by small firms which are bought out, or have their IP infringed upon. If research is done, it is for a product to cough up this quarter or perhaps this FI, and usually it is how to add a gewgaw to something existing and palm that off on the market.
You mention China. Chinese companies know how to lock their doors down. They know what happens if you run your company with your fly open, and most of the companies over there wouldn't even be in business had it not been for "borrowed" IP from the West. Take Foxconn as an example. For a company that size making so many Apple products (including ramping up production on unannounced items), they are quite airtight about what their factories produce even with the hordes of workers they have. Had this been a company run by the typical PHB here in the US (with their usual lack of interest in security), everyone and their brother would know what the iPhone 5 looks like, and perhaps even have the source code for that rendition of iOS.
I wish the US would start borrowing from China in this regard. Even with security aside, just because a company's IT infrastructure works today doesn't mean it will work 5 years, or perhaps even six months from now without major issues. Taking a charge off quarterly earnings to fix problems now means a lot of less wasted money when the upgrades have to be done post-haste.
Re:It's a governance issue - plan and simple (Score:5, Informative)
As it is there's very little reason for corporate executives to think down the road by more than a couple quarters, as chances are the people who own shares now won't still own any much beyond that.
Re:I feel the pain...in state Gov... (Score:5, Informative)
I am having trouble getting basic hardware replaced - I can't get a 500-750 dollars to replace some network switches let alone enough scratch to update my primary DC. Our Budget Analyst does not see the need to plan for future needs, or periodic replacement of vital equipment as warranty cycles expire. I have documented our needs, but my boss the CIO is afraid to push the issue.
My advice: add some risk analysis argumentation. You know? Something on the line of:
1. probability of equipment failure [omdec.com] over time - use the "cumulative hazard function" not the "probability distribution function".
2. impact the server crash will have on the business (make sure you slip-in some "lost face" apropos - after all it would be the manager's face to be lost). If you can express the impact in $$$ and plot the "risk x impact", chances are the budget analyst will "get the picture" easier.