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Navigating the storm

IT infrastructure costs are in the eye of the storm

IT infrastructure costs are volatile, and rising costs will shape your budget. The market is in the most volatile pricing period in a decade, so strategic planning is crucial.

Find out how to protect your spend, keep your strategic programmes on track, and come out ahead.

See the pricing forecast

Pricing intelligence

Understanding how big the storm will be

We're tracking and forecasting equipment manufacturers' pricing structures to help you make informed choices. The better you prepare, the easier it'll be to navigate this pricing storm.

OEM cost index forecast by architectural pillar (2023–2028)

OEM cost index forecast by architectural pillar, 2023 to 2028 Data Centre & Storage costs rising fastest, toward 460 by 2028, driven by VMware/Broadcom licensing. End User Computing rises toward 330, driven by Citrix. Enterprise Networking, Enterprise Management & AIOps and Data Resilience rise more moderately. All series indexed to 100 at the start of 2023.
  • Data Centre & Storage — Highest trajectory, driven by VMware/Broadcom's subscription reset; Dell and Nutanix trends are milder
  • End User Computing — Sharp early step from Citrix's forced subscription move, moderating as Microsoft AVD competes
  • Enterprise Networking — Gradual climb from Fortinet/Cisco subscription shift, plus 2026 hardware memory cost pass-through
  • Enterprise Management & AIOps — 2026 acceleration from ServiceNow's AI-native tier restructuring and forced bundling
  • Data Resilience — Flattest trend, reflecting Veeam's modest 4–8% annual increases across the period

Indexed to 100 at the start of 2023. Solid lines are drawn from documented figures; dashed lines from today (17 August 2026) onward are directional forecasts, not measured data.

OEM price severity ranking (by architectural pillar)

Bars scaled by square root of the percentage to keep outliers readable; actual documented figures are labelled on each bar.

Where the storm hits

Four areas of your infrastructure, one storm to navigate

Networking, connectivity, SASE, SD-WAN, WAN modernisation

Digital connect

Networks are evolving from connectivity platforms into intelligent, secure digital fabrics. You need Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)-driven connectivity, AI-ready networking and sovereign architectures that support hybrid work, cloud adoption and regulatory compliance.

Explore our network solutions

Data centre, cloud, storage, compute, infrastructure modernisation

Digital core

The digital core must support both innovation and cost control. It's time to reassess cloud strategies, modernise data centres, and invest in AI-ready infrastructure that delivers agility, performance and long-term financial sustainability.

Book a free cloud assessment

Cybersecurity, backup, recovery, resilience, compliance

Defence and resilience

Resilience has become a board-level priority. You need cyber recovery strategies that go beyond backup. To trust your backups, your strategy must combine immutable storage, tested recovery, regulatory compliance and AI-driven threat detection.

Get built-in resilience

End-user computing, digital workplace, workforce experience

End user

The digital workplace is becoming autonomous. AI-powered service management, intelligent endpoint management and modern workplace platforms will help you improve productivity, security and user experience while overcoming ongoing skills shortages.

Empower your staff

The business impact

This is what the storm is costing you right now

Rising infrastructure costs aren't just an IT problem; they affect your entire business.

Stalled programmes

Strategic projects get paused to protect cash flow, and momentum is hard to win back.

Reactive decisions

Budget pressure pushes teams towards short-term fixes instead of long-term value.

Hidden costs

Ageing infrastructure gets more expensive to run every year you delay the decision.

Our approach

How we'll help you navigate this storm

01

We show you where the money's really going

Before we fix anything, we map your infrastructure spend against what it's delivering.

02

We protect your strategic programmes

Let us help you restructure spend so your priority programmes keep moving, even while budgets tighten elsewhere.

03

We turn cost control into an advantage

A cost review does more than save money. It cuts waste you didn't know about, stretching your budget when you need it most.

Your budget and your strategy can align

The IT infrastructure storm is happening, and it will continue. But so will the support we offer our customers.

Get in touch with our strategy team today and see how we can help you.

Get in touch

We're in the middle of a storm

OEM hardware and licensing costs are rising faster than budgets can follow

130%

Expected increase in OEM hardware costs.

1,050%

Expected increase in VMware renewal fees, in the worst documented cases.

But IT-spend budgets aren't increasing at the same scale. Digital infrastructure is experiencing unprecedented volatility, and businesses need to spend smarter, not just spend less. And that's exactly what we can help you with.

Join us as we navigate the storm and track, review and unpack developments in digital infrastructure. Stay informed with the pricing intelligence that will help plan the next eighteen months rather than react to it.

Let's navigate
the storm together.

Talk to our strategy team about protecting your spend and your strategic programmes.

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