When it comes to technology and IT spending, most manufacturing leaders are rightfully and proudly pragmatic. While some industries acquiesce to a seemingly never-ending vendor hype cycle and penchant for new solutions, manufacturers are an anomaly. Walk across the factory floor of a metal stamping plant making auto parts or a facility preparing food products, and you’re likely to see several generations of IT systems, hardware, and software supporting machines that are 30, 40, or even 50 years old.
The reason is straightforward: these legacy IT systems, purchased and paid for years ago, simply continue to work, much like the machines they support. Importantly though, several significant trends promise to upend this dynamic, facilitate the end-of-life for many aged systems, and bring manufacturing leaders face-to-face with a day we knew was coming.
