Millions being wasted on unused aplications

UK businesses are wasting millions and potentially putting their companies at risk of security attacks by storing applications they no longer use. That’s the main finding of research conducted by access infrastructure IT firm Citrix among 1,400 IT professionals at its annual iForum event in Edinburgh, which found that more than half of IT managers have a significant number of passive applications – in one case costing a company £200,000 a year in wasted licence fees alone – also monopolising two servers to store its build up. The poll also found around 72% of respondents agreeing that it’s standard practice to store unused programs on corporate servers, while 45% also agreed these passive applications could pose a security threat as a back door into the corporate IT system for hackers and viruses. Only 15% of IT managers expressed any intention to reuse any of these applications. Citrix notes that companies are also spending millions of pounds filling servers to capacity and wasting hundreds of man-hours every year. ‘Passive applications’, it says, are usually the by-product of software upgrades or merging IT systems after company mergers and acquisitions. The most common are: back office systems applications like accounts software (33%), office applications such as Word and Excel (26%) and communications applications like email (25%). “Our survey reveals a phenomenon that could become a major headache in the future for some UK businesses,” says Lewis Gee, managing director of Citrix UK. “In the worst case scenario, these passive applications could eventually compromise the performance of IT networks by taking up much needed space, increase the risk of security breaches and create an unnecessary drain on company balance sheets. “Companies should consider introducing appropriate access infrastructures now so these passive applications can be put back into use or closed down in a planned and controlled manner to avoid future problems.”