By Chris Brill, Field CTO, Myriad360
In the IT world, change is the only constant. Whether it’s the curveball of a disruptive vendor acquisition, an unexpected ransomware attack, or shifting market priorities, organizations face countless challenges that demand agility and foresight. Take Broadcom’s $61 billion acquisition of VMware as an example. The deal not only transformed the enterprise IT landscape but also left countless organizations scrambling to assess their reliance on VMware products and to plan their next steps.
Here’s the reality: it doesn’t take a crisis to throw your operations off track. Change—whether expected or not—will inevitably challenge your infrastructure, your applications, and your teams. The question is, are you ready to pivot when it happens?
The Cost of Unpreparedness
Organizations unprepared for change often find themselves caught flat-footed. Ransomware attacks, for instance, have surged dramatically, with a 13% rise in ransomware breaches—a jump greater than the past five years combined. The average length of interruption after ransomware attacks at businesses and organizations in the United States is 24 days.
But ransomware is only part of the story. Outdated infrastructure compounds these risks, creating inefficiencies and technical debt that snowball over time. A recent study revealed that 70% of IT decision-makers believe legacy infrastructure increases the likelihood of outages, and 60% report downtime costs of $100,000 per hour or more. The consequences of failing to modernize extend beyond downtime to erode customer trust and organizational resilience.
Taming Tool Sprawl and Clearing Tech Debt
For too many organizations, unmanaged tools and legacy systems act like anchors, dragging down efforts to adapt to change. Tool sprawl alone can lead to ballooning costs and operational inefficiencies, often hindering teams from making meaningful progress. The broader challenge, however, lies in technical debt: 80% of organizations identify technical debt as a significant barrier to innovation.
Eliminating redundant tools and addressing technical debt isn’t glamorous, but it’s foundational. By prioritizing efforts based on the impact on operational efficiency and strategic goals, organizations can allocate resources more effectively, tackling the most critical areas first. You can’t modernize effectively if your IT ecosystem is bloated or brittle. Streamline where you can, consolidate tools intelligently, and free your team to focus on innovation rather than firefighting.
A Blueprint for Modernization
Modernization isn’t a one-time fix—it’s a strategic imperative. Organizations need clear, actionable frameworks for evaluating and evolving their infrastructure and applications. That means asking hard questions about dependencies, inefficiencies, and scalability.
The goal is to create an evergreen IT environment: one that balances current operational needs with future adaptability. Start with an honest assessment of your tech stack. Where are the inefficiencies? What dependencies leave you vulnerable? With a blueprint in hand, organizations can shift from reactive upgrades to proactive transformation.
A Culture of Refresh
Modernization doesn’t end with a big deployment or a new strategy—it’s ongoing. Just as businesses iterate on products and services, IT systems must evolve in cycles, not stops and starts. This iterative mindset must be embedded into the organizational DNA.
Leadership plays a key role here. Leaders must champion a culture of continuous evaluation, empowering teams to challenge assumptions, identify opportunities, and act decisively. When teams know that modernization isn’t a project with an endpoint but a continuous process, they’re better equipped to navigate the next wave of change.