IT Hardware Shortages: 3 Moves to Avoid 18-Month Waits

IT hardware shortages: 3 moves to avoid 18-month waits

IT hardware shortages are a brutal reality right now, pushing lead times to 18 months and driving up costs by 50% to 200% for critical components like memory. This isn’t just a hiccup; it’s a deep, systemic issue, primarily fueled by hyperscalers gobbling up memory capacity for the AI explosion.

If you’re not planning for this, your next server refresh or network upgrade will hit a wall. I’ve watched the IT landscape shift for over 30 years—from structured cabling in the 90s to VoIP, then cloud, and now AI.

We’ve seen disruptions before: fires in chip fabs, COVID shutdowns. But this time, it’s different. This AI inference wave is just beginning, and it’s creating a “durable” shortage that will impact everything from your virtualization stacks to your new AI initiatives.

This isn’t a temporary blip; experts like Gartner predict memory costs will sharply rise well into 2027, reaching up to 25% of network hardware expenses. Enterprise network equipment pricing is projected to jump over 20% in 2026, with further increases in 2027.

So, what do you do when Cisco can’t even get all the components for their own Silicon One chips, and a simple network switch takes 9-12 months to arrive? You adapt, you plan, and you get aggressive. We at CTS have been guiding clients through this, and the businesses that come out ahead are the ones who stop waiting and start acting.

How long will IT hardware shortages last?

Don’t expect a quick fix. Building new chip fabrication plants takes at least two years. Even then, increased capacity might only stabilize prices, not bring them back down to pre-shortage levels.

If prices went up 40%, they might come down five. That’s the hard truth. This means you can’t just wait it out. You need to assume current lead times and elevated pricing are the new normal for the foreseeable future.

Here’s what nobody is talking about: the power implications. Newer server generations, while expensive and hard to get, often consume far less power per unit of compute. We’ve seen clients modernize aging infrastructure and drastically reduce their power footprint, sometimes cutting the number of physical servers by half for the same applications.

If you’re still running servers from 2018 or earlier, your power bill is likely higher than it needs to be, and you’re missing out on critical efficiency gains that could offset some of these hardware cost increases. It’s not just about the hardware cost; it’s the total cost of ownership.

Are you talking to your facilities team about available power for new GPU environments? Because if you’re planning on bringing AI compute in-house, you’ll need significantly more power density—we’re talking 120k VA per rack, not the 5-10k VA of old.

3 concrete strategies to navigate IT hardware shortages

We’ve implemented these strategies with our clients, from Fortune 500s to growing SMBs. They work.

Sweat your assets, ruthlessly: This is old-school IT, but it’s more relevant than ever. Look at your existing server utilization. Are those virtualized servers truly running at 80%+? Or are they idling at 20-30%? We often find significant unused capacity.

Extend the life of existing servers from 4 years to 6 or 7. Get extensions on your software licenses and service agreements. Don’t replace if you can optimize. A capacity planning assessment can free up budget for where you really need it.

Diversify your vendors and embrace hybrid solutions: Are you a Dell shop? A Cisco shop? Good luck getting what you need, on time, if you’re rigid. You might need to consider Lenovo, HPE, or even white-box solutions for certain workloads.

For AI, especially, don’t assume you’re getting 100% NVIDIA GPUs. Look at AMD. More importantly, don’t be afraid to use public cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or Oracle Cloud for specific AI inference or training workloads. They often have the high-end GPUs you can’t get on-prem. Be strategic: what absolutely needs to be on-prem, and what can live in the cloud? The NIST Cloud Computing Standards Roadmap offers useful guidance for hybrid cloud integration.

Plan with your finance team and vendors, now: This isn’t just an IT problem; it’s a business problem. Schedule rolling 12-24 month forecasts with your CFO. Keep them updated on lead times and price increases.

Explore financing incentives from vendors—many are offering subsidized financing or deferred payments. More importantly, talk to your VARs and suppliers. Lay out your projected needs, and even “what if” scenarios for rapid growth. We do this constantly. It allows them to allocate capacity for you or warn you when you need to place an order 12 months in advance. If you wait until you need it, you’ve already lost.

Don’t let these IT hardware shortages derail your modernization plans. Even if you can’t get all the physical gear, you can still move forward with software projects, SaaS licensing, or proof-of-concept work in a colocation facility or a vendor’s lab. The key is to act, plan, and be flexible.

Frequently asked questions

Why are IT hardware shortages happening?

IT hardware shortages are primarily driven by hyperscalers (like Google, Amazon, Microsoft) buying up vast amounts of memory and compute capacity for AI development, which trickles down and impacts the supply for all other businesses.

How long will IT infrastructure lead times be?

Companies accustomed to 30-45 day lead times are now seeing 6, 12, or even 18 months for servers, storage, and networking equipment, with no significant reduction expected until late 2027 at the earliest.

Will IT hardware prices come down?

While price increases may stabilize by late 2027, experts do not expect a significant reduction to pre-shortage levels. If prices rose by 40%, they might only come down by 5%, meaning higher costs are likely the new normal.

What can I do immediately to deal with IT shortages?

Immediately assess your existing IT asset utilization to free up resources, diversify your hardware vendors and consider hybrid cloud solutions, and engage proactively with your finance team and vendors for long-term planning.

Ready to upgrade your technology?

Complete Tech Solutions designs, installs, and supports IT, cabling, security, and network infrastructure for businesses across Grand Rapids, West Michigan, and nationwide. Schedule a free site assessment and we’ll map out the right solution for your space and budget.

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Ryan Whitaker

Complete Tech Solutions

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