73% Of Businesses Have End-Of-Support Devices On Their Networks

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

The increasing number of businesses using at-risk devices creates opportunity for solutions providers.

Outdated devices are like ticking time bombs for corporate networks, yet almost three-quarters of businesses reporting having end-of-support devices operating in their networks, according to a new study from IT solutions and managed services provider Softchoice. This is a 13 percent increase from 2015.

The study also found 96 percent of businesses are still using end-of-sale devices. If one unsupported or end-of-sale device goes down, it can bring the rest of the network down with it. End-of-support devices also increase the risks of security breaches, network outages, and higher replacement costs. This reality is affording great opportunities to solutions providers to help companies develop a network upgrade strategy.

“We found the overall number of at-risk network devices is on the decline, however, the number of businesses who have them in their networks is actually on the rise,” said David Vigna, Cisco Practice Director at Softchoice. “The misconception is that fewer at-risk devices make an organization less vulnerable, but it only takes one to bring down an entire network.”

As the number of businesses using at-risk devices grows, solutions providers can leverage this opportunity to sell proactive services and packages to help transition them out of service.

Softchoice also recommends a three-step approach for organizations to proactively evaluate the health of their network infrastructure:

• Analyze your current infrastructure. By assessing which devices are nearly end-of-service and will need to be replaced allows organizations to avoid network downtime, alleviate risk, and plan for replacement expenses.
• Assess your disaster recovery plan. Review your disaster recovery plan to identify which devices are most likely to cause issues down the line.
• Prepare for replacement devices. Since most end-of-sale devices provide two-to-five years before the manufacturer eliminates support, create a proactive plan that will allow for upgrades before support ends.

Vigna told SCMagazine.com, “Since the vendor no longer sells or supports the device once it has gone end-of-life, outages created by these outdated devices tend to take longer to resolve. That means lost productivity and likely lost revenues for the business, but it also means greater replacement expenses for a couple of reasons.

“First, the business will almost always spend more to rush the procurement, installation, and configuration to get out of crisis mode ASAP; and second, the business often takes on additional unplanned expenses to avoid another such outage. Compare that to IT replacing these devices according to their own schedule, not in the midst of a crisis.

And if the vendor stops supporting a device, this means an increased security risk and the company is truly exposed until they upgrade to a supported platform, he added. “The only alternative would be to redesign what equipment they have to limit the vulnerability, or disable the feature, although you most likely need that feature to maintain business continuity – creating a catch-22.”

The Softchoice report examined more than 212,000 Cisco networking devices at 350 organizations across North America.