When was the last time you took at look at your Server? You know, that thing that’s probably in a dusty old closet, that your business has had since before you joined. Every once in awhile, like your car, you have someone come in and do ‘a tune up’. The individual suggests upgrading to something newer but in the board meetings everyone agrees, if it isn’t broken why fix it. But just like that old trusty car that always seemed to start until that one day. Your server and infrastructure is very similar with many more hidden dangers and very high risk factors that can result in big problems, even hazardous to your business, and just like your trusty old car it will stop working when you least expect it.

They are watching

Old technology is vulnerable to security threats. The rule of thumb goes something like this, the older the operating system, application, hardware or software the more time the cyber criminals have had to find exploits and less likely that the vendor is still creating and supporting the technology. Your old SQL server that you felt was working just fine or maybe that old FTP server that no one uses but is still active on the network or even more common those old Windows XP desktops that the budget hasn’t been allocated to be upgrade are all risking the security of your network. These older applications and pieces of hardware are putting all your data at risk. Everything from your phone system to your financials can be accessed and exploited. Can your business survive a serious attack?

RIP: the hard drive

The most common part to fail on a system is the hard drive. Why the hard drive you may ask, it’s one of the few pieces of hardware that has moving parts. A faulty hard drive or a hard drive that no longer works usual results in severe data loss. There are things that can be done on newer technology such as using Solid State Drives (SSD), these have no moving parts and will provide you with a performance boost.

Something smells rotten

Yes, Bits can rot. From the pages of Wikipedia, “With ever-growing disk capacities, file sizes, and increases in the amount of data stored on a disk, the likelihood of the occurrence of bit rot and other forms of uncorrected and undetected data corruption increases.” What is your plan B? With the popularity and accessibility of hardware and cloud based solutions you can quickly move critical data to a more advanced and secure storage system.

At a second glance

When it comes to old technology, any of the issues above can strike at any time. This could mean loss of business, lower productivity, angry clients or worse…compromised critical data! But what about the organizational impact on your business? While less noticeable at first, old technology and infrastructure can actually hold your business from retaining and staying competitive in your market.

Are you in front of the pack?

Lets be realistic, your competition wants your market share, in other words they want to destroy you and are looking for an edge. They are slowly, like ants, building their IT department to more quickly and efficiently share information between departments and use the latest technology to automate, integrate and disperse their products and/or services. Why would you let them take that advantage when it’s at your finger tips.

Things just don’t mesh together

Older technology simply does not have the synergy to work with modern technology. You will become limited in your ability to bring in new technology and will begin the process of ‘just patching’ things together, like a sinking ship. The quicker you move forward the more cost effective the process will be.

Technology that meets your needs

How quickly can you have an employee up and running? How quickly can you see who your clients are, how many sales you have made in the past week? When something goes wrong, how quickly can your IT provider solve it? These are all things you can address simply by improving your current Technology and infrastructure.

So let’s add up the risks and dangers of holding on to old technology:

your business is vulnerable to cyber criminals
your hard drives can and will fail causing your business data loss
Bit rot leads to data corruption and or loss
loss of competitive edge
not able to quickly integrate modern technology
the technology is working against you not for you
Lets reconsider that “if it isn’t broken why fix it” mentality. Can you really afford not to fix it?