Do you have debt? Escape to the cloud

Technological debt is slowing down innovativeness and growth of Polish enterprises. According to managers

The delay of market product debuts, the never-ending attempts to modernize IT and increasing costs are just some of the challenges for Polish and foreign enterprises. Diagnosis? Technological debt, or unsatisfactory technical solutions, implemented with meeting business needs quickly. Transparent or unregulated debt makes it difficult to put in motion necessary changes or correct operations of enterprises, increasing operating costs and decreasing operational elasticity. Consequences resulting from regular updating of IT infrastructure is felt by over half of managers nationwide (59%), from organizations polled by OVHcloud¹. If it is such a frequent obstacle, how do you safeguard yourself from it?

Prevention above all

In conducting the poll, only 16% declared that in their company technological debt symptoms are not noticeable. 16% of polled managers responsible for IT pointed out that they are aware of what technological debt is, and one in three companies takes into account this phenomenon within the structure of managing IT. What is interesting, 60% of those polled, declared that it uses on premise solution models exclusively, or their own devices, on the spot. That means, the entire weight of maintaining, updating, adapting to oncoming needs and finally, to upgrading systems and infrastructure rests solely on shoulders of IT departments. Actions taken for the sake of minimizing impact of technological debt depend on specified company needs, and their readiness to put changes in motion.

Technological debt is a common occurrence in nearly every company, regardless of their size. Main causes of accumulated debt include: cost reduction, implementing projects too quickly into the organization. The key to dealing with the debt is instilling a conscious process approach, to assure smooth growth of an organization. Planned actions, such as observing and updating existing solutions with aim to interpolate them into the design, simplifying interface of applications, applying solutions that allow for avoiding mistakes in the code and in some situations getting rid of superfluous applications or database, and replacing them with new solutions. These are just some methods for dealing with debt – Tomasz Sobol, Cloud Product Manager at OVHcloud, CEE, notices.

Debt by the Vistula

Even 34% of domestic entrepreneurs thinks that infrastructure is refreshed more frequently than every 5 years. However nearly a quarter of those polled (24%) admits that they replace equipment less frequently. Most frequently, even 40% say that they replacing takes place “every 5 years”. That same number of managers (40%) declares that in the case of company computers, this takes place more frequently than every 5 years.

Study also concludes that when facing the problem of technological debt, nearly a quarter of Polish companies looks to outsource its IT support. Exactly 24% of those polled admitted that affirmation of debt influenced their decision to speed up the process of using IT outsourcing services. In the case of 5% of respondents this meant outsourcing the entire infrastructure, in 7% it meant only for servers to be  outsourced. Another 12% decided to outsource only the programming aspect.

Managers of polled companies value the cloud when it comes to finding solutions in controlling technological debt of enterprises. Even 35% admit that the potential for support in this respect encourages the use of cloud technology. It is worth mentioning that 71% of respondents that declare that the cloud helps them in that respect, also uses the Cloud. Another 29% of companies perceiving the cloud as a solution (or at least support in the matter of debt) is just now planning to implement it.

Applying the approach to avoiding technological debt in the area of IT infrastructure, long term planning plays a key role, in the areas of selection of proper technology, suppliers, applications, competences and team members, and also undertaking strategic business decisions which take into account risk of changes. Postponing or downplaying the matters technological debt in an organization is a very dangerous phenomenon, which frequently results in much greater costs and unnecessary time constrain. We observe that clients, that are faced with the necessity to progress with quick changes, and in turn bear huge investments, more often search for support in a computing cloud. Taking advantage of powerful computing resources in the form of services, takes away a lot of responsibility off the shoulders of the IT department, and regarding updates, they lie with the suppliers. As seldom in life, this escape from problems, gives a lot of benefits. – Tomasz Sobol notices.

About OVHcloud   OVHcloud is a global, and Europe leading provider of cloud, managing 400, 000 servers in personally owned 33 centres of data on four continents. For the past twenty years the Group uses an integrated model, which assures full control over the value chain: beginning with designing their own servers, through managing their own centres of data, up to building and maintaining their own global fibre optics network. This unique approach enables OVHcloud support, in a independent manner of 1,6 million clients in over 140 countries. OVHcloud offers clients newest generation solutions, combining high performance, predictable pricing and full control over information data, supporting its own unlimited growth. https://corporate.ovhcloud.com

Tomasz Sobol – Cloud Product Manager, OVHcloud, CEE region

Last Updated on October 27, 2022 by Anastazja Lach