Uncle Joe could fix anything. Once, he bought me a motorcycle toy at the grocery store (one of those ridiculously cheap toys at the checkout line). Of course, the junky thing broke before we even arrived home. The fuel of a 5-year-old’s desperate tears and his obsession to fix all things drove him into his basement workshop, and within a few minutes, voila, the motorcycle toy was up and running.
Our family still talks about the dryer he kept running for, quite literally, decades. Seasons passed, years came and went, children grew old and had their own children, nations rose and nations fell, but the dryer remained, faithfully maintained by Uncle Joe.
We love to remember the good ol’ days of quality manufacturing when appliances used to last for years upon years, even if we didn’t have an Uncle Joe to keep the equipment going for a lifetime.
However, for business owners in particular, this sentimental view of hardware can inhibit IT infrastructure best-practices. We want laptops, PCs, servers, printers, and phones to operate in a highly efficient manner for a decade. When they don’t last that long, we blame the equipment for being cheap. Or, maybe we keep our favorite laptop chugging along as it gets slower and slower, thinking we are saving money by not replacing it. Or, on the software front, maybe your group loved a specific operating system or version of an industry software, and so you put off upgrading. Or maybe you are simply too busy to prioritize researching those essential software patches, or to make sure your hardware components are compatible.
The reality is this: the hardware and software you use in your business need regular maintenance, updating, and replacement. You need to cull your old equipment and replace with faster machines. Even the highest quality equipment will become slower and slower over time, and it does no good to struggle with inefficient machines. Your software should be patched as necessary to avoid bugs and security threats. Your hardware and software should be compatible in order to avoid inefficiency and potential failure.
Otherwise, your and your employees’ time might be wasted. Your resources can be dumped into failing, outdated equipment. Your business’s cyber security risk increases. Your risk for data loss increases. Frustration and financial loss follow.
You should be having regular conversations (quarterly or annually) with your IT department or IT Managed Service Provider regarding IT infrastructure and budget. These discussions should involve regular plans to upgrade old equipment, upcoming projects for improved infrastructure, and proposals for getting the most bang for your IT infrastructure buck. You also want to be sure that you are not falling prey to buying the latest and greatest equipment with all the bells and whistles which you may not need. Your IT provider should be taking the time to listen to you to understand the needs and circumstances of your industry and your particular business. They should not be making recommendations based simply on what preferences they have as technology-oriented folks. They should tailor their knowledge of technology to fit your needs.
The “Uncle Joe and his dryer” model is a good one for old school tinkerers. But it shouldn’t be a model for your business’s IT infrastructure.