Top Five Barriers to Tech Adoption

by Darryl K. Taft

IT pros cited the need to continue supporting old, legacy technologies as the fifth biggest barrier to new technology adoption (by weighted rank). Though there are a few potential underlying issues here, one of the most likely relates to compatibility issues between legacy infrastructure and new technologies.

Coming in at No. 4, survey takers said the potential disruption to end users and to the overall business that could result from adopting and implementing new technology is also a stumbling block. According to another SolarWinds survey taken last year, disruptions to the performance of existing infrastructure, particularly applications, can have significant financial impact on businesses.

For all intents and purposes, there was a tie for the No. 2 and 3 spots, with one of these barriers being the challenge of convincing business leaders of the need and/or benefit of new technologies. While yet another previous SolarWinds survey indicated IT pros are being given a seat at the business table, it also found a minority are completely confident filling that role. There could be a correlation between these findings.

Also coming in at No. 2 was a shortage of IT personnel needed to implement and/or manage new technologies. This is potentially in part connected to No. 5 on the list, as supporting old, legacy technologies is likely consuming much of the available IT personnel bandwidth, leaving little room for new technology.

Drumroll, please. The No. 1 barrier preventing IT from adopting significant new technologies is budget limitations. That’s right, budget continues to be a top stumbling block for IT. This comes as no real surprise, though, as previous reports indicated only modest IT budget increases in 2015.

While risk aversion and resistance to change is likely to blame for the fifth- and fourth-ranked barriers, the top three relate to making the business case for significant new technology. After all, if business leaders believe new technology is strategic to business goals, they will find a way to fund it—both through personnel and budget. The bottom line is that there may be a gap between IT’s understanding of how important new technology is to future business growth and business leaders’ understanding of the same. For businesses to be truly successful, IT must bridge this gap.