%20cropped.jpg)
How fast does technology become obsolete? Just look at your phone. In 2015, the newest smartphones had 20 megapixel cameras, 2.2 GHz processors, and 4G data connections. Now, just a few years later, the next generation phones are expected to have as many as 5 built-in cameras, twice the processing power, 5G data and HD displays. That’s not just a lot more power; that’s a whole bunch of new technology you probably didn’t even know you needed.
Now, if you’re locked into a long-term contract, your phone technology will seem oppressively out-of-date in no time. The same is true of your office technology — perhaps even more so.
How to Avoid Obsolete Technology
The good news is that Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) means you never have to put up with obsolescence. The HaaS model can be a cost-effective way for small or mid-sized businesses to work with state-of-the-art hardware without paying state-of-the-art prices every couple of years. A HaaS plan typically includes hardware and software, plus a standard maintenance plan — all for a fixed monthly charge.
In our fast-paced technology world, owning and maintaining technology yourself is getting to be too expensive, cumbersome and difficult. It can be done, but as technology changes, mutates and evolves every year, keeping up gets harder and harder. As retired Army Chief of Staff General Shinseki once said, “If you don’t like change, you’re gonna like irrelevance even less.”
Here’s our quick guide to why HaaS can keep you current, relevant and financially stable:
1. Control Your Costs
In the HaaS model, an organization doesn’t have to spend a lot of money upfront for hardware upgrades or to introduce new technology. In other words, it converts a large capital expense into a more manageable operating expense. As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you know that a fixed monthly cost makes budgeting easier.
In addition, HaaS removes the unpredictability that comes with having to do maintenance and upgrades yourself. A HaaS provider will have a dedicated vCIO to help you strategize to reach your technology goals and will deliver a proactive service plan to keep your machines, network and systems current and secure.
2. Stay Cutting edge
Are you familiar with Moore’s Law? It’s not really a law, but more of an observation made a long time ago that CPU technology was doubling in power every two years. That means that your phones, tablets, laptops and desktops from a few years ago are half as powerful as the current generation of technology. HaaS is the only shortcut you can take to stay current with state-of-the-art technology specific to your industry and business.
That can include multifunction printers and copiers, servers, computers, peripherals and more.
And we think your IT department will appreciate not having to spend all of their time doing upkeep and maintenance on your machines and, instead, can spend more time on long-term projects.
3. Stay out of trouble
It’s troubling enough when companies put off purchasing new hardware and upgrades because it’s not in the budget for that year. But even worse, they often put off maintenance or even important security upgrades because it’s not a business priority at that moment. With HaaS, equipment upgrades and service is included in the Service Level Agreement. You can stop worrying that a hacker will get into your systems or your equipment will fail right after a warranty expires. This is a proactive service model which means hardware failures, hack attacks or viruses are not catastrophic.
4. Build for the future
Being able to scale is everything in today’s business world. As your business grows and changes, your technology needs to be able to keep up with spikes in demand or even changing business models. And if a negative trend affects your company and business contracts, you can even scale down with a HaaS solution and not be stuck owning unused machines. With HaaS, you can integrate any number of new devices, all depending on your needs.
5. Security, security, security
When is the last time you tested your firewall? How up-to-date are the software patches in your network devices? When it comes to IT hardware and security, most people plug in a device and forget about it. But network security often requires regular hardware and software updates if you hope to remain safe. As an organization changes and grows, a device that once kept you safe might become a liability as it tries to protect a network with more devices, remote workers or new offices.
A service plan should include up-to-date technology like a firewall, Wi-Fi access points, servers and more as part of your service offering. With HaaS, it’s easy to upgrade to the latest hardware when necessary for security reasons or as a component of your backup and disaster recovery plan.
Hardware as a service is not another tech buzzword. It is a real and sensible plan for both technology planning and budgeting. To learn more, reach out to the Gordon Flesch Company today for a no-cost assessment and consultation.
