7 Signs Your Hardware and Networking Equipment Is Due for an Upgrade

Time to Upgrade Your Hardware and Networking Equipment

Ongoing poor performance and outages can destroy productivity and demotivate employees. These are the signs your hardware and networking equipment needs to go.

Keyword(s): hardware and networking

Most small businesses spend almost 7% of their total revenue on new technology. Big companies (those doing 2 billion or more a year in revenue) spend almost 4%.

That, broken down into dollar figures, is an immense investment.

So why do businesses invest in technology at the rate they do?

Because technology is one of the most important factors in staying ahead of the curve in today’s ruthlessly competitive business world.

New technology lets you stay productive. It allows you to communicate effectively. And ultimately, new technology lets you offer high-quality products to customers at the lowest possible cost.

Whether you’re a small, medium or large company, if you’re using outdated technology to run your operation, you’re losing money.

That’s why we put together this list of seven ways to know when your hardware and networking technology is out of date and when it’s time to upgrade.

1. Your Technology Is No Longer Supported by the Manufacturer

Technology can be issue prone. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it needs to be replaced. It can mean that it’s time to contact the manufacturer for help.

If you’re being told that your hardware and networking equipment is no longer supported by your manufacturer, it’s time to upgrade.

Not being supported means that you can’t rely on an external team to help you with issues you experience. It also means missing out on important updates.

2. You Can’t Access Updates and Security Is a Company Concern

When technology is out of date, you can no longer get updates. While this may seem okay if your equipment is still operating well, it can pose serious risks.

One of the most common reasons technology manufacturers push updates to hardware and networking equipment is because of security concerns. Hackers who try to hold company data ransom or steal customer identities are developing more sophisticated methods of breaching data every day.

Because of this, hardware and networking providers look at those methods and send updates out to equipment to safeguard against them. If you’re no longer able to update your equipment, you’re vulnerable.

3. Your Equipment Crashes

When your networking hardware crashes, you lose time. When you lose time, you’re losing money.

While unplugging, plugging back in and waiting for your hardware and networking equipment to reboot doesn’t seem costly, when you add up the time lost over a year, the costs can be massive.

If you’re paying an employee hourly, what does ten minutes of lost time while rebooting a network cost you?

Multiply that by all of your employees and multiply that by how many network outages you experience each year. If the number you come up with shocks you, it’s time to upgrade to stable equipment.

4. Operating Expenses Are High

Every time your equipment has an issue, you probably call someone from your internal IT team or an external vendor to fix it. If you’re finding that this is happening multiple times a year, you could save money by upgrading your equipment.

It’s normal for hardware and networking equipment to require routine maintenance. Throughout the equipment’s lifecycle, the number of checkups it needs will rise. Understanding when maintenance becomes more costly than replacing the component is critical to keeping costs down.

5. Speeds Are Slow

If you or your employees are experiencing frequent network slowdowns, an upgrade may fix the problem.

Often times, if your hardware and networking equipment is not crashing, replacing it is not a consideration. Still, if you’re needing to wait for network folders to open up or if emails are taking a long time to send, you could benefit from an upgrade.

Quality hardware and networking equipment will move at the speed of your business. If you feel your employees can operate faster than their network will allow them to, buying new equipment can be a high-value investment.

6. Your Company Has Grown

When starting a company, it’s natural to want to bootstrap things. That means you’re looking to get jobs done at the lowest cost possible.

This mentality translates to the networking technology you invest in.

While your technology worked fine with ten people using it, it’s unlikely it will have the same level of performance when you hit 100.

Networking technology is designed to be able to handle a set level of bandwidth. Each query a user passes through your technology eats a portion of that bandwidth allotment. When the allotment has been exceeded, slowdowns and crashes occur.

If your company has expanded considerably since you purchased your hardware and networking equipment, you’re likely due for an upgrade.

7. You Feel You’re Falling Behind Your Competition

Technology allows businesses to get leaner and faster with their workflows. If you’re looking at a market comparison between you and your competitor and you’re coming up short, a technology upgrade could give you the boost you need.

Investing in new technology means investing in the future. It lets you speed up, it keeps you from costly security breaches, and it gives you a foundation to rely on that can support your expansion.

Working harder isn’t usually the solution to gaining market share from your competition. Working smarter typically is.

Investing in new technology can give you the edge you need to get that leg up you’ve been looking for.

Summarizing the Importance of Upgrading Hardware and Networking Equipment

Networking equipment allows businesses to operate at their highest capacity. Regularly analyzing the usefulness of the equipment you’re using and upgrading when the time comes ensures that you’ll stay ahead of the curve when it comes to productivity, security and more.

If you’re upgrading your current networking equipment, your old equipment still has value!

Our team at NetEquity.com specializes in the purchasing of networking hardware. We give you an additional return on your initial investment!

Contact us today for a free quote on your old equipment. We can also help you get connected with low-cost networking upgrades!

For more general information on technology in business, read more on our blog.