For years, the phrase ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t touch it’ has been used as something of a motto by IT professionals. Everyone knows the horror stories of that small adjustment that caused an avalanche of misery. But haven’t we come to rely a little too much on those settings that haven’t been adjusted for years and that software that functions so calmly and smoothly?
Nothing changes as fast as Information Technology (IT). What is hype today is seen as legacy tomorrow, knowledge becomes obsolete, insights change and people switch jobs or employers. And so every organisation that relies on IT has at least a few components of technology in house that is little known (anymore).
According to analysts, more than 60% of IT budgets are spent on keeping the existing IT infrastructure running. Simply put; most of the budget is spent on things the organisation depends on. Few IT managers will ask their staff or an external company to take a structural look at whether that particular technology is still up-to-date.
Most organisations are not so aware of this; hackers, however, are. For them, looking up old weaknesses in software or settings from sometimes up to 10 years ago is a simple way to make a lot of money. With the knowledge of NOW, we would do things safer, smarter and differently. However, many things were implemented with the knowledge of TODAY and never touched again.
Software, settings and policies are subject to wear and tear. Not physical wear and tear, but not applying patches and updates and leaving 10-year-old settings unchanged creates vulnerabilities. Hackers have not only the knowledge, but also the funds to use a lot of computing power to look for these weaknesses. And we all see where that leads almost daily. Have no illusions, there will be many weaknesses at your organisation too.
It is therefore increasingly common for part of the IT budget to be used for health checks. Think of it as a preventive scan where your suppliers’ specialists, armed with today’s knowledge, thoroughly check your systems for imperfections. It is precisely the software that no one ever notices and that has been working for 5 years without any problems that needs it. Because just think what we did NOT know 5 years ago when this software was implemented!
Feel free to call us for a discussion or to make an appointment for a preventive scan of our solutions, it takes some time, but after that you can let it go for a while.
