Old devices drive corporate, government computing

Dimension Data says the age of devices connected to corporate and government networks is the highest in six years.

The company gathered data from 32 countries and found more than half of devices are ageing or obsolete.

To Dimension Data, ageing means kit that is no longer on sale and with only limited vendor support. Typically ageing devices are between three and five years old.

The IT services company regards hardware as obsolete when there is no longer any vendor support. These devices are at least five years old.

This research goes part way to explaining why there are still so many Windows XP systems in large organisations.

Dimension Data puts the amount of old kit in corporations and government departments down to organisations sweating their assets.

New computers don't necessarily do much more

This makes perfect sense. There’s not much everyday users can do with a brand new PC that they can’t do with a six-year-old personal computer. Indeed, as more applications move from the desktop to the cloud, there’s less need for beefing up local processing power or storage. This, in turn, means there is even less pressure to update hardware.

Ironically, this is happening while the cost of useful devices continues to plunge. A decade or so ago a suitable corporate desktop would cost the thick end of NZ$2000, today replacement hardware costs are as little as a third of that price.

One other conclusion I draw from this research is that either the BYOD revolution isn’t happening, or, if it is, the devices are not connected to the networks Dimension Data watches.

Aging devices present organisations with a potential security challenge, especially for devices that no longer receive operating system or other software updates.