December 18, 2025 The IT Decline Putting Manufacturers at Risk

Manufacturers face rising cyber and operational risk as enterprise IT ages faster, fragments environments, and breaks resilience.

By Peter Rodenhauser, President & CRO at Corsica Technologies

For decades, manufacturers relied on stable enterprise systems such as ERP platforms, identity and directory services, data management tools, and cloud-based business applications. These technologies followed predictable upgrade cycles, often lasting five to seven years before meaningful change was required.

That era of stability is over. Today’s enterprise IT and cybersecurity tools are aging far faster than expected. Vendors rapidly shift architectures; cloud platforms evolve faster than internal teams can test and validate, and security requirements outpace the ability of compliance programs to keep up. At the same time, Gartner forecasted that global enterprise IT spending would grow 7.9%, reaching $5.43 trillion in 2025. What once felt steady and cost-effective has become a continuous cycle of reinvestment and reassessment.

The technology that once anchored the business now moves faster than planning cycles, budgets, and staffing models can absorb. The result: only 36% of enterprise tech executives manage their investments in cloud, data, AI and product engineering as integrated portfolios defined by business objectives and common architecture.

Manufacturing leaders who built their organizations on predictable technology lifecycles now operate in a world where predictability has largely disappeared.

Shorter Lifespans = Fragmented IT Environments and Rising Cyber Risk 

As tools age faster, manufacturers accumulate more platforms than they retire. Each year, new cloud services and enterprise applications are added further expanding and complicating the application sprawl and existing EDI implementations. However, organizations cannot simply do away with older systems; they’re costly to deintegrate and hold historical data, or teams cannot risk the disruption of their current workflows.

Data integration and EDI are foundational for seamless supply chain operations. When legacy systems lack modern integration capabilities, manufacturers often resort to manual data entry or custom connectors to bridge gaps between platforms.  These workarounds introduce errors, delays, and inefficiencies, undermining the reliability of procurement, inventory, and logistics processes. As a result, the supply chain becomes more vulnerable to disruptions, and the business loses the agility needed to respond to market changes

With an overload of tools, fragmentation becomes the only constant in the IT environment. Overlapping identity providers, inconsistent data stores, redundant analytics tools, unmanaged shadow IT, and isolated cloud services create a landscape with limited visibility. As a result, security teams struggle to maintain clear asset inventories. IT teams struggle to maintain consistent configurations. And leadership struggles to determine which tools are still necessary and which are quietly introducing risk.

Aging tools were not built for the cyber threats manufacturers face today. Their authentication methods lag, their logging and auditing often lack the depth needed for real insight, and their encryption falls short of current standards.

As the environment becomes more fragmented, attackers in turn gain new opportunities. They look for forgotten systems, unpatched cloud connectors, outdated access policies, and legacy accounts still tied to old applications. The faster systems age, the easier it becomes for attackers to find the blind spots.

Convergence Between IT and Cybersecurity Heightens Consequences

The line between IT and cybersecurity has effectively disappeared. Identity services control access to essential business data, while cloud applications support communication with suppliers and customers and help maintain compliance. At the same time, email, collaboration tools, and file repositories store sensitive information that adversaries regularly pursue during attacks.

When an aging IT tool fails or becomes unsupported, the impact reaches far beyond convenience. A single outdated identity connector can interrupt authentication flows across multiple business systems. An obsolete data platform can distort reporting or break integrations that leadership relies on for forecasting. An unpatched cloud app can open a path for ransomware.

Boards recognize that cyber risk is rising, yet 90% of Non Executive Directors still question their organization’s preparedness. This lack of clarity at the highest levels often signals deeper issues. If leadership cannot assess the security of the environment, unseen vulnerabilities are likely already present.

Operational Stress Grows When IT Tools Age Too Quickly

Even minor software mismatches can slow the business. Outdated connectors, unsupported plugins, expired APIs, and version incompatibilities can interrupt data exchange across teams. Many manufacturers experience unexpected disruptions when a vendor update quietly breaks an internal workflow that was never built to handle rapid version changes.

These issues compound as the number of aging tools increases, and IT teams spend more time managing exceptions, testing patches, and troubleshooting integrations. Cybersecurity teams are then required to keep a close eye on outdated systems that do not produce modern logging signals. Employees lose time navigating confusing or inconsistent interfaces, and leaders lose confidence in the reliability of their digital environment.

Supply chain operations are particularly sensitive to these disruptions. Legacy EDI systems, if not properly integrated with modern platforms, can cause delays in order processing, shipment tracking, and supplier communications. Even minor integration failures can cascade into missed deliveries, excess inventory, or lost sales opportunities. Ensuring robust, real-time data integration across the supply chain is now a competitive necessity. This is not a problem that can be solved with additional spending alone. It is a problem of strategy and governance.

A New Model for Managing the Life of Enterprise IT

Continuous modernization is now essential. Manufacturers can no longer rely on multi-year upgrade cycles or periodic refresh projects. The environment changes too quickly, and cyber risk moves even faster. This new model begins with visibility: a complete, living view of enterprise IT systems, cloud applications, identity services, data platforms, and authentication flows. Without it, leaders cannot distinguish essential technologies from redundant ones or identify systems nearing end of life.

Maintaining this level of visibility is increasingly difficult to sustain through manual processes alone. As environments grow more complex and lifecycles shrink, static inventories and periodic audits quickly fall out of date. Automated discovery and monitoring help organizations maintain real-time awareness of what exists in the environment, how systems interact, and where aging or unsupported technologies are quietly introducing risk.

Simplification must follow. Consolidating overlapping platforms helps IT teams regain control, reduces integration gaps, and shrinks the attack surface. Cybersecurity becomes easier to enforce when ecosystems are unified rather than fragmented across aging services.

Modernization also requires rethinking integration. Replacing brittle, point-to-point connections with scalable integration and EDI platforms ensures data flows reliably across both legacy and modern systems, reducing manual intervention and strengthening supply chain resilience.

Governance must evolve as well. When applied correctly, automation reinforces governance by surfacing changes and dependencies that would otherwise go unnoticed between review cycles.

Staying Ahead of IT and Cyber Lifecycles

With a proactive modernization strategy, systems become more reliable and outdated, and redundant applications no longer create hidden points of failure. Cybersecurity posture improves as legacy vulnerabilities are reduced, and modern controls become easier to enforce. Board confidence rises because leaders can see the true shape of the environment rather than guessing it.

Most importantly, organizations become more agile. When IT and cyber environments are clear, current, and well-governed, manufacturers can adapt to new requirements without fear that legacy systems will break under pressure.

In an era where enterprise IT ages faster each year, the ability to anticipate change and stay ahead of risk has become a defining competitive advantage. Manufacturers that embrace continuous modernization will experience fewer disruptions and maintain a stronger foundation for secure, sustainable growth.

About the Author:
Peter Rodenhauser is an experienced technology executive with more than 20 years of leadership across operations, managed IT services, and digital transformation. As President and Chief Revenue Officer at Corsica Technologies, he focuses on scaling high-performing teams, driving revenue growth, and delivering integrated IT and cybersecurity services that help organizations operate securely and efficiently. Peter brings deep expertise in professional and managed services, enterprise and mid-market customers, and aligning operational execution with long-term business strategy.

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