Tackling Technical Debt in 2025 and Beyond
As the need for advanced solutions around cybersecurity, AI and cloud continues to rise, we’ve seen an enthusiasm around IT modernization. Organizations that are averse to modernization and want to maintain their legacy equipment may find that maintenance of outdated equipment is actually more costly in the long-term. So what is the impact of carrying this technical debt?
Understanding Technical Debt
Technical debt is the accumulation of outdated systems, legacy code, and suboptimal technology decisions. It has become a sizeable barrier to innovation and operational efficiency for many organizations who aspire to grow and capitalize on the promise of new technologies like AI. In order to address the individual concerns, we’ve dug into the available research and data on technical debt and have summarized the key findings:
Bottom Line:
Organizations are burdened by significant technical debt that is holding them back in the market. As a result, they are forced to spend more money on that debt than on any other single area of technological investment.
However, the data shows it’s not all gloom and doom. Leveraging a thoughtful approach can simultaneously address the excess ‘weight’ of the organization’s tech footprint while also accelerating modernization efforts. To start, organizations can follow two key rules when establishing an approach to technical debt:
1. Drive focus on eliminating tech debt across data, apps and infrastructure and make it a top priority
2. Identify and address root causes in decision making and investment methodologies
At Red River, we work closely with our clients to address and prevent tech debt from the top down. We serve as a strategic partner to our clients and work closely with both internal teams and stakeholders to ensure technology decisions and investments are made with a long-term view to minimize the “interest” that technical debt accrues.
If you would like to learn more about Red River’s approach, feel free to explore how were addressing technical debt in our latest ebook or contact us directly info@redriver.com.
Sources:
3 https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-top-trends-in-tech
