Research from Advania, the leading European mid-market solutions partner, shows a significant shift in how UK organisations are managing technology investments. UK businesses are prioritising sustainability to navigate evolving economic pressures even when the going is tough.
The findings, published in Advania’s Building Core Resilience report, surveyed 1,236 IT decision-makers across Northern Europe, including 500 in the UK. The data highlights a maturing market where UK leaders are pioneering circular economy practices while simultaneously reassessing their cloud and security frameworks.
UK leads Europe in sustainable IT
The UK emerged as a leader in adopting sustainable IT equipment as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions and/or aim for ‘net-zero’. A combination of ESG priorities, cost pressures, and the hardware supply issues mean that 38% of UK respondents said their organisations are ‘using environmentally friendly or refurbished IT equipment’ – higher than their counterparts in countries across Northern Europe.
This is buoyed by initiatives like Advania’s Smart Device Refresh service, allowing businesses to identify employees likely to benefit the most from a device upgrade. This uses AI analysis of workload patterns and the employee’s current device experience, particularly in terms of performance and stability.
Strategic consolidation amid licensing pressure
Recalibration on cloud spending has been brought to the fore as organisations seek more control over hosting amid a potential wider “SaaSpocalypse”. One issue is [software] ‘Licensing fatigue’ with 49% of UK IT leaders reporting they overspend on software licenses, and are now focusing on consolidating vendors and optimising existing environments rather than unchecked cost expansion.
This concern over overspend is paired with a broader decline in trust in vendors across the board, as fewer businesses believe vendors will operate in their best interests. For instance 40% of respondents believe that “Vendors prefer to sell products, not solutions”, and 36% believe that “Vendors prefer transactional over supportive relationships”.
Reassessing cyber risk in dangerous times
While sustainability and cloud efficiency improved, the report flags a downward trend in defensive spending. Despite 44% of leaders citing emerging threats as their top concern, patching frequency has declined. Properly refurbished devices address this, security capability is validated as part of the process. The risk lies elsewhere: organisations extending device lifespans on their own terms, without rigorous maintenance, may find ageing hardware unable to support the latest endpoint protection and device management technologies. Sustainability and security aren’t in conflict, but only when lifecycle decisions are made with both in mind.
Advania experts suggest that while reducing these budgets might balance the books in the short term, it creates a “resilience debt” that could prove far more expensive to settle in the event of a breach. With geopolitical tensions and threats rising, this data should underline for organisations why cyber investment in particular must remain a priority.
“Our research shows that UK organisations are becoming incredibly savvy on sustainability and hardware lifecycles,” said Chris O’Brien, CTO at Advania UK. “Leading Europe in refurbished IT adoption is a major win for the Circular Economy and demonstrates that cost-efficiency and ESG goals can go hand-in-hand. It is a valid sustainability strategy that allows businesses to extend the life of their hardware effectively and our involvement in schemes like HP’s Brighter Futures trade-in programme for the Education sector is a great example of the altruistic aspect of this strategy.”
However, as we recalibrate cloud investments and address software licensing fatigue, we must be careful not to leave the door open to attackers. Cutting cyber spending or lapsing on the frequency of patching is a high-stakes gamble. The goal for 2026 should be ‘secure efficiency’, leveraging the savings from refurbished tech and cloud consolidation to reinforce digital defences rather than stripping them back.”
For further information visit: http://www.advania.co.uk/
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