Over the last several years, many IT practices have become fixed and inflexible. While older concepts are a good springboard, some have become ineffective. There are many you can reconsider and or eliminate entirely. Let’s take a look at the 5 outdated IT practices you need to stop right now.
Outdated Software
One of the biggest security vulnerabilities a company can face is one of the simplest to address: outdated software. There are many risks associated with using unsupported or outdated software—and hackers love to exploit these gaps. One of the major hazards includes leaving you open to security breaches and compliance violations that you could be fined for. Older software can also lead to a system failure, which can bring your organization to its knees in no time. Further, out of date software can limit productivity due to antiquated workflows and processes.
When you continue investing in legacy software support and maintenance, you leave less room for innovations. Instead of adopting new technologies and business models, when you’re stuck with your old software, you let new opportunities in your industry go unnoticed. Although upgrading software—including your operating systems—can be time-consuming and require significant resources, doing so can safeguard your organization and shouldn’t be skipped.
Cloud Computing
Building and maintaining servers in-house seems almost archaic with the arrival of the cloud. A significant number of server requirements can be met by contracting with a vendor that would take the responsibility for hosting and maintaining the server-side hardware and software, even though some servers will still be required to be maintained in-house. Most cloud vendors are able to provide public, private, or hybrid cloud hosting based on your requirements. With such extensive cloud capability, there is no reason anymore to rely heavily on in-house server hosting.
Much of today’s modern software is hosted in the cloud. Migrating to these versions can not only help save your business the costs of purchasing and maintaining software, but also the costs of maintenance and upkeep on servers. Additionally, cloud software is typically updated by the provider, which means you won’t have to worry about your software becoming outdated, as we covered in the previous section.
Remote Options
If your firm’s IT strategy doesn’t include video cameras and laptops for team members to facilitate remote work and remote communications, you risk being left behind. Bill Gates predicted that “companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge.” Flexible work arrangements improve the effectiveness of individuals and teams and can improve employee morale. In some cases, workers are willing to accept a lower salary in exchange for the ability to have input on when and where they work.
Forums & Newsgroups
Discussion forums and newsgroups are other popular mediums of yesteryear. These once served as portals where questions are raised from the team and answers are provided in the conventional question-and-answer format. A significantly better alternative to conventional discussion forums are options like Slack, Hangouts, or Facebook. The format is far more intuitive and user-friendly with social media pages than with conventional discussion forums. Also, multiple answers can be handled easily with social media pages.
Unnecessary Complexity
Legacy systems often fail to perform as needed due to their overly complex structure. So, rethink your architecture and prioritize for simplicity. When modernizing your systems, less is more in terms of both architecture and functionality. You can start by implementing only the most important features.
Make sure the new application will work well with the rest of the tools used in your business by default. If you plan to change any of the tools soon, consider several possible options and keep their requirements in mind when building your application. No matter what applications you choose, make sure you use a solid and future-ready technology stack to deliver optimal performance and user experience.
Conclusion
Many executives are unsure, or even unaware, of the risk obsolescence presents to their technology portfolios. Their uncertainty stems from not having the right data, operating with inconsistent definitions, and dealing with conflicting points of view on need, priority, value, and risk, as many legacy applications have a large variation in age and correctness of their documentation.”