{
  "id": 15725397,
  "title": "Companies are spending nearly a third of IT budgets on software upgrades",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/companies-are-spending-nearly-a-third-of-it-budgets-on-software",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-20T09:21:13.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechRadar",
    "slug": "techradar",
    "url": "https://www.techradar.com/pro/companies-are-spending-nearly-a-third-of-it-budgets-on-software-upgrades"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new report from Origina reveals that nearly a third of enterprise IT budgets are dedicated to software upgrades, often driven by vendors rather than the companies themselves. This phenomenon, dubbed a \"software tax,\" is consuming valuable resources and impacting productivity. Over 84% of senior engineering staff spend time dealing with these vendor-driven changes, taking away from more meaningful work. Nearly 80% also fear that leaving a major software vendor could disrupt their business. More than three-quarters of enterprises report that their software vendor dictates the timing and terms of changes, giving them little negotiating power. Many enterprises are even retiring fully functional hardware just to meet software vendor support deadlines. The trend is particularly prevalent with Windows 10's end of support, which is likely a significant factor. Enterprises overwhelmingly support legislation to protect them from such vendor-driven practices and software support obligations similar to those introduced by the EU for hardware repairability.",
  "summary": "Software isn't just about a one-time purchase or an ongoing subscription – frequent updates are costing money and time.",
  "key_points": [
    "Nearly a third of IT budgets spent on software upgrades",
    "\"Software tax\" consumes resources, impacts productivity",
    "Enterprises seek legislation to protect against vendor practices"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Vendor-driven upgrade cycles function as a software tax that drains engineering productivity and forces enterprises into costly hardware replacements to maintain support for critical business operations.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}