Any business, regardless of the size or industry, will face many challenges. Whether it’s a strict deadline, harsh industry regulations or aggressive competition, the business world will always offer its share of difficulties. Despite being so crucial to a business’ bottom line, one challenge that is often overlooked is Information Technology.

Assessment professionals TechCheck have recently released the results of a survey of 52,000 networking devices at more than 200 organizations through Softchoice’s Cisco Contract, and the findings are not encouraging for businesses that rely on technology to get their work done.

The shocking details of the report include:

• 60 percent of businesses have end-of-support devices running in their networks
• These devices put businesses at a higher risk of security breaches, and also result in decreased productivity and higher costs to replace them down the line
• 95 percent of businesses have end-of-sale (meaning supported, but no longer on the market) devices operating on their networks
• 30 percent of all devices assessed lack a standard technical support service

Clearly, it’s of the upmost importance to ensure that your New England business’ technology is up-to-date and secure. The following are a few steps you can take to maintain relevant IT:

• Choose an effective IT support provider to assess your network from top to bottom to identify any outdated devices.
• Ensure that you have a reliable Disaster Recovery Plan to keep your system and data safe in the event that outdated hardware results in an outage, data loss, a data breach, or any other type of unforeseen emergency.
• Plan ahead to repair and replace equipment as it becomes out of date, instead of long after.

Don’t put your business at risk with out-of-date technology! For information about keeping your hardware up-to-date and secure, contact Vertical IT at (888) 505-8215 or info@verticalitcorp.com today.