Messaging services vendor Interop Technologies runs three data centers to provide services to customers and to run its own back-office systems. Interop also provides turnkey hardware/software solutions that run at customer sites. Pandemic-related hardware shortages, particularly those of servers and storage, have put a severe crimp in the way it does business.
“When you go to procurement, you get so much push-back,” said Joshua Collazo, the company’s director of infrastructure. “This is back ordered, that is back ordered.”
Before the pandemic, the company was able to jump on opportunities quickly. “That’s gone away,” he said. “Ad-hoc has gone the way of the dodo for us.”
Interop is used to adjusting for seasonal supply-chain disruptions, particularly around the end of the year. But now, more of these dead windows have appeared.
The larger the order, the bigger the problems. It might take about a month to provision a smaller system for companies that only need a handful of boxes, but “if you want 20, 30, or 50 boxes, it looks like six months,” he said. “When you consider that you’ve got projects that could span nine to 18 months to deliver, and you’re adding six months right off the bat, it makes things challenging.”
