The Hidden Costs of Outdated Network Infrastructure

CONTRIBUTED POST

Running your business on outdated technology might feel like you're saving a buck or two by not upgrading. And sure, newer tech is expensive.

However, operating on technology that cannot handle more modern outputs or working methods and isn't up to the standards you need is going to cost you more in the long run.

Because while you're not footing the bill for newer tech, you'll be paying out for the side effects of working with an outdated infrastructure in multiple ways. And you'll be losing money fast as you are making it by making do with what you have,

Let's take a look at some of the hidden costs of working with outdated network infrastructure.

Lower Productivity

This is going to be one of the more obvious ways you'll feel the effects of the costs of outdated infrastructure. Because when your hardware is running at or near capacity, everything will slow down. 

Staff will struggle to upload large files, they’ll have sluggish connections for video calls, and they'll avoid certain tools because it's too hard and too draining to use.

And from here, you lose productivity, you lose cohesion across the board, and more time will be spent finding workarounds or correcting issues and going back to find what you need than you spend actually working.

Modern equipment, however, can meet the technical demands of businesses and deliver what you need to keep working as they need to be every day.

For example, upgrading to Mikrotik products can come with a learning curve, but using Mikrotik setup tips can help you improve functionality to boost productivity and support your business as you need it to.

High Maintenance Costs

Legacy hardware will cost more now to maintain than it did when you first had it installed.

It's like an older car. It runs perfectly at first, then with usage and wear and tear, it suddenly ends up needing more and more repairs and work to keep it running.

Your hardware is the same. And then once it becomes outdated, there's no active maintenance or updates, or it's now obsolete the costs become higher and the risk increases.

What happens when you can't get the repairs you need? Then you're either faced with yet more increasing costs, or you'll just need to replace it all anyway.

In fact, Forrester Research found that organizations modernizing infrastructure reduced operational IT costs by 30% within 2 years.

That's a significant saving and an indicator of what you're using by clinging to hardware that's not where you need it to be for daily operations.

Security Risks

When hardware reaches its end of life, it stops receiving updates from the manufacturer.

They will expect you to upgrade and implement newer hardware that fits for the purpose.

And the thing is, attackers know that, and they expect you not to realize so they can get a foot in your door due to you not upgrading when you're supposed to.

More and more cybercriminals are targeting smaller businesses because they are more likely to have outdated hardware and fewer resources to protect themselves which is easier to gain access to.

This makes your network an instant target rather than a protected one.

But when you upgrade, you can automatically benefit from security updates and technology built into it to give your infrastructure a boost to cover yourself, your staff, and your clients more thoroughly.

Unplanned Downtime

The older your hardware, the more likely it is to break down unexpectedly.

This leads to increased downtime, and every business knows what happens when you have too much unplanned time.

If something fails during business hours, be it fans, power supplies, or other components, then you are ruling that piece of equipment and everything that relies on it until you can get repairs carried out.

And when you can’t work, this impacts your customers too, not just your bottom line.

To put it into context, unplanned time can cost major manufacturers around $50 billion annually combined, but the average cost for midsize businesses exceeds $14,000 per minute.

That's a lot of money to lose because you didn't want to upgrade.

Growth Limitations

If your infrastructure was built for the business you had once, but not the business you have today, then you're automatically limiting your potential.

As you grow and bring on more staff, more devices, and more tools, your network will hit its limits pretty quickly.

Once it does, you'll notice performance dropping, capacity running out, and the architecture that once worked flawlessly will create bottlenecks everywhere.

Once you reach this point, the choice to upgrade will effectively have been taken out of your hands.

You're doing it in paceci as you need to give yourself an infrastructure that supports growth, and you'll be making decisions based on how fast you can get up and running, not what's actually best.

Compliance Problems

Compliance for business changes all the time. Older hardware won't always have the compliance you need, and it still leaves you exposed in multiple areas.

Because if your business handles any type of customer information, payment data, or operates under any kind of regulatory requirement, such as HIPAA, your network needs to be fully compliant at all times.

Equipment that cannot support proper security controls, traffic segregation, or current access management creates audit issues.

The only remediation here is to upgrade to reduce compliance risks and avoid fines or restrictions on your company for not being able to offer the security and protection you need to or should be delivering.

Energy Costs

Older networks and hardware will use significantly more power than modern alternatives.

This difference adds up to real money annually in electricity costs.

For the most part, business owners never circulate increased energy usage with their outdated infrastructure.

The reason it uses more energy is that it will run hotter when in operation, which then increases cooling requirements and puts more wear on the surrounding hardware. But upgrading reduces this as current equipment will be designed to deliver a better performance leaning lower energy costs for you.