You have been WARNED!
Almost a year ago to the day we brought it to your attention that semiconductor production was in crisis, demand from almost every angle had increased but the output in production couldn’t and cannot currently keep up with the rapidly rising demand. Many countries and companies have taken action to start the ball rolling in the production for the first time while others look to expand manufacturing, but though this action is certainly promising it can take many years, many billions of pounds and lots of red tape before these new production lines can set to work, and to add fuel to the fire as we and the New Scientist reported days ago the crisis or shortage is set to not just continue but become far worse before it can get better. An extremely important line in supply and the sole provider of this vital technology used in the production of computer chips reported a fire at their manufacturing plant and though they have not reported as to the extent of the damage it has been 11 days since my writing with no further word from ASML Holdings, who have inevitably seized production. The company is the only manufacturer of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines that etch circuits onto silicon wafers, without these circuits being manufactured the semiconductor crisis will only continue to worsen and prices for products will continue to increase. And don’t forget we’re not just talking desktop computers and laptops here, every plane, train, boat, automobile… Even television sets and many devices like your smartphone, tablet, smartwatch and many other smart products are classified as a form of computer and these too will be hugely affected. Last year saw an increase of approximately 37% added to the price of new and used cars and as the shortage is set to deepen, these price rises are here to stay for at least another couple of years. The world’s largest chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. increased their prices by 20%, they account for 90% of the world’s most advanced chip production and supply, others too have followed suit with increases of 10% to 40% across the board, while other computer components due to the increase in production and transport costs have risen by almost 15% in just the summer months alone, and prices inevitably are not going to become any cheaper any time soon, especially while supply dwindles.
Act Now!
So what can you or should you be doing to protect you and your business? Well first and foremost don’t leave anything by chance if your computers or devices are old or outdated, or you are looking to hire more staff in the coming year then ensure you have enough computers and devices for your new starters as well as backups in case your current employees computers or office devices pack up, it could take many months to get your hands on the right system or components to repair or replace that device, which in turn will obviously lead to a loss of business if things do go wrong, and if you do purchase your items now they will certainly be cheaper than in just a few months from now. The next thing to avoid is assuming stuff like your computer or network devices such as in-house servers, printers and the like are not just having a hissy fit moment running slow, not connecting properly or having the occasional glitch upon start up or shut down because of a ‘software’ or ‘update’ issue because on average 25% of the time it’s usually not a software issue at all and a piece of hardware needs repairing or replacing, that being the case get the professionals in to check! If your legs all of a sudden started to work intermittently you wouldn’t leave it thinking well I did eat that mammoth full english breakfast a few days ago… no you would get yourselves to the doctors as soon as humanly possible, so start treating your poorly devices as sick patients and get the experts in to assess the situation instead of tempting fate and seeing what happens instead. Getting your tech engineer in to carry out a full or partial audit of your systems and devices is a necessity for every business large or small, acting now and keeping an ongoing monitoring system in place will help to prevent loss of work and penultimately save you time and money. Why not give us a call today to arrange your IT systems audit on: 01737 824 003, you will be glad that you did!
