A buildup of legacy systems, including outdated remote-access tools and VPNs, can crush organizations with tech debt, he adds. Many organizations haven’t yet fully modernized to the cloud or to SaaS tools, and they will turn to outside providers when the time comes, he says.
“Most companies don’t build and design and manage their own apps, and that’s where all that tech debt basically is sitting, and they are in some hybrid IT design,” he says. “They may be still sitting in an era dating back to co-location and on-premise, and that almost always includes legacy servers, legacy networks, legacy systems that aren’t really following a modern design or architecture.”
Winston advises IT leaders to create plans to retire outdated technology and to negotiate service contracts that lean on vendors to keep IT purchases as up to date as possible. Too many vendors are quick to drop support for older products when new ones come out, he suggests.
