Report: Vendors push companies to spend 28% of software budgets
A new report finds that companies are now using 28% of their software budgets just to meet vendor-mandated changes.
This is making it harder for them to invest in things like AI: about one-third of organizations have had to pause or slow their AI projects because of these costs.
The squeeze is also hitting budgets for hiring, security, and new ideas.
IT leaders report damaging vendor changes
The survey (2,018 senior IT decision-makers in the United States and the United Kingdom) shows 95% had paid for a vendor-driven upgrade, migration or licensing change in the past three years that they believed would reduce performance, reliability or business value.
Most say vendors decide when updates happen, leaving little room to negotiate or push back.
Companies are even ditching perfectly good hardware early, losing an average of 1.65 years of useful hardware life per device, just to keep up with vendor demands.
The report suggests enterprises need stronger protections, kind of like what renters get with tenancy laws.