Whose roadmap is your software estate running on?

Most enterprise software estates run to somebody else’s calendar.

End-of-support dates, license model changes and needless upgrades arrive on the vendor’s schedule, and the IT team absorbs them: the migration nobody budgeted for, the re-platforming that displaces a project the business actually asked for, the patch cadence that is really a product roadmap in disguise.

Origina, an independent provider of software maintenance and support, puts figures on the pressure.

As a rule of thumb, up to 90 percent of IT budgets go on “keeping the lights on”, leaving only 10 percent for anything new.

Enterprise software costs, it says, are on course to rise 40 percent by 2027, and most of that increase is driven by vendors rather than by customers.

The alternative it argues for is not standing still.

It is to decide, on the business’ terms, what changes and when.

A system that is stable, compliant and doing its job does not need upgrading because of a vendor-driven deadline.

It needs to be supported, secured and kept in step with the business until the business has a reason to move.

That reason might be a merger, a new operating model or a real step change in capability.

It should not be a support deadline.

That is the case for building flexibility into long-term planning from the start, rather than buying it back later at a premium.

On the estate’s biggest lines, this is how it looks.

Perpetual VMware licenses stay supported for as long as they are useful, instead of moving to a subscription bundle on someone else’s timetable.