Once upon a time there was a computer that had non-legit software on it, and it was used to build solutions and answers to multiple questions. That computer began to become essential to the operations of day to day business operations. This is know as an IT Debt.
So the IT debt grew the hardware was paid for; but the software was not. No matter how many people the company hired, they never paid for software. Then one day they fired their head IT person and out of fear they looked for a cheap way to operate. So they convert everything to a platform that has no costs and was open sourced. The software was finally free and they build an empire on it. However the employee they hired asks for a raise and is denied, so the employee slacks and then later leaves the company. Now no one knows how to operate the empire and this is know as an IT Debt.
Now the company needs to find someone who is both experienced in open source and closed source and they need this candidate to work well with others. Most people will look at this as a major IT debt. Because of unlicensed software, the need to hire some one qualified to operate Linux and their complete infrastructure depends on this individual, the costs of doing business has become very high.
That is why most IT staff will come into an operation and the 1st thing they want to do is just study the current architecture vs. doing anything to jeopardize it. If they are expected to hit the ground and start running, the company will experience lots of down time. Otherwise it takes about 90 days for any qualified individual to become acclimated with the staff and the new system.
The best way to avoid IT Debt is to start out legit. IT debt increases only on bad decisions and avoidance of obvious legitimacy concerns. When it comes to do the right thing it is smarter for the staff to be trained on all matters, and for the owner to especially be trained on all new and existing products the company offers.
Otherwise the owner could find themselves spending more money than the first on the original IT Debt.
