Seizing market shifts: Why it’s time for an infrastructure reset

At Compnow, we saw something different: a rare opportunity for enterprises to realign the infrastructure that has been holding transformation back.

“Legacy systems served us well for decades, but they were not built for the last two waves of change: cloud and AI,” says Julian Critchlow, Chief Technology Officer at Compnow, a leading Australian technology transformation partner specialising in enterprise infrastructure, cloud integration and strategic IT modernisation. “Another generation of patchwork acquisitions and incremental upgrades will not just slow you down; it could cost you the competitive advantage you have worked hard to protect. This is the moment to act.”

Why this matters now

For most CIOs and CTOs, the pressure to transform is relentless. AI promises, cloud migrations and digital customer engagement are everywhere. Yet the noise and competing priorities often lead organisations to invest in platforms without a clear destination.

“Our clients want clarity,” Critchlow explains. “They know transformation is inevitable, but they need to understand which investments genuinely enable it and which simply add complexity. Whether that means optimising existing vendor relationships or introducing new capabilities, that is the conversation we are having.”

The shift is already underway. Gartner’s 2025 CIO and Tech Executive Agenda reports that 43 per cent of Australian and New Zealand CIOs plan to reduce legacy infrastructure investments this year – recognition that maintaining outdated systems is constraining growth rather than enabling it.

“The HPE–Juniper integration signals the convergence of networking, cloud and AI into one unified architecture,” Critchlow notes. “It creates permission for enterprises to rethink foundations that have been ‘good enough’ for too long and build for tomorrow.”

What transformation readiness looks like 

Across sectors, from retail and hospitality to national service providers and large enterprise networks, the organisations making real progress are not performing surface-level upgrades. They are rethinking how technology enables the business.

In recent engagements, Compnow has helped multi-site organisations redesign their foundational architecture. Cloud-connected infrastructure now delivers real-time visibility across locations. Security postures have strengthened through consolidation and automated policy management. Critically, these modernisation efforts have unlocked measurable operational savings and freed budget for innovation.

Transformation in action: A retail case study 

Consider a leading Australian quick service restaurant (QSR) group. Known for its strong customer experience and operational scale, this organisation faced the same challenge as many multi-site businesses: legacy infrastructure that limited visibility, agility and innovation.

Working with Compnow, the QSR group redesigned its technology foundations to enable transformation rather than constrain it. Cloud-connected consolidation now provides real-time visibility across all locations, improving operational efficiency and decision-making. Security posture was strengthened through AI-driven policy management, reducing risk and ensuring compliance. Most importantly, these changes delivered measurable cost savings and freed budget for future innovation.

This is a clear example of transformation readiness in practice: moving beyond incremental upgrades to create an architecture that supports growth, resilience and customer experience at scale.

Similarly, several large service-based enterprises have identified a growing constraint: legacy network architecture simply is not built for the data-intensive, AI-driven workloads arriving over the next two years. Working with Compnow, they have shifted from reactive maintenance to a unified, scalable architecture that accelerates transformation rather than slowing it down.

“That is the difference between upgrading and preparing,” Critchlow says. “We are not just helping organisations transform; we are helping them build environments where transformation becomes repeatable, confident and economically sound.”

The economics – and the people 

Compnow’s approach starts with economics. Every transformation decision must connect to clear operational outcomes and measurable gains. However, there is another critical dimension that is easy to overlook: the people driving it.

“IT teams are under enormous pressure to deliver transformation while keeping the lights on,” Critchlow says. “Our job is to ensure they are empowered, not just maintaining systems but actively contributing to what is possible.”

AI is reshaping that dynamic. With the right tools and architecture, IT moves from being a cost centre responding to business demands to becoming a strategic contributor shaping what transformation can deliver.

HPE’s CEO Sujai Hajela frames the shift plainly: “The future of enterprise networking will not be built by stitching old systems together. It will come from intelligent, unified architectures that give businesses the agility to compete in a data-driven world.”

That is precisely the architecture Compnow helps clients build, not by replacing every vendor but by creating coherence across the technology stack so transformation becomes possible, not aspirational.

Five questions to ask right now 

1. Are we architecting for convergence or managing in silos? If network, cloud and AI live in separate strategies, you are building debt, not capability.
2. Can we see and secure data from edge to cloud right now? Visibility gaps are the biggest barrier to confident transformation.
3. Could we deploy AI-driven operations within six months? If the answer is “probably not”, what is the minimum viable change to get there?
4. Is our vendor ecosystem optimised for outcomes or historical inertia? Map each vendor relationship against strategic priorities and strengthen the partnerships delivering measurable value. Where complexity outweighs contribution, rationalise with purpose.
5. Can we connect technology spend to business impact in one page? Outcomes must read as business outcomes and executive value: revenue enabled, cost avoided, risk reduced.

Ready to turn transformation into performance? 

At Compnow, we believe leaders who embrace this moment will define the next decade of enterprise transformation. Leaders who challenge legacy constraints, realigned architecture and choose partners  embrace change and choose technology partners committed to practical, measurable delivery will set the pace for others to follow.

“This shift creates permission to act boldly,” Critchlow says. “To challenge infrastructure that has been good enough. To align technology with the business you are becoming, not the business you have been.”

Compnow helps Australian enterprises realign network, cloud and AI foundations so modernisation delivers measurable business outcomes. Start shaping your transformation today, connect with Julian Critchlow to explore how Compnow can help you build a future-ready architecture.