Right now the global IT supply chain is under pressure from an ongoing shortage of memory components, including RAM and SSD storage. This is not a theoretical or future issue, it is already affecting hardware availability, pricing, and lead times across laptops, desktops, servers, and infrastructure.
What’s Causing It
The biggest driver today is demand from AI platforms and hyperscale data centres. These environments consume vast amounts of high performance memory, and manufacturers are prioritising production for them. As a result, less capacity is available for traditional business hardware.
At the same time, memory manufacturers are transitioning between older and newer memory standards, which has further tightened supply for commonly used configurations.
What Businesses Are Seeing Now
Many organisations are already experiencing:
Higher prices on new hardware, particularly higher specification devices
Longer lead times for certain models or memory configurations
Reduced choice when customising systems
These impacts are most noticeable on servers and premium laptops, but they are filtering into everyday business devices too.
What We Recommend
To avoid disruption, we recommend:
Planning hardware purchases earlier than usual
Being flexible on specifications where possible
Refreshing critical systems first, rather than delaying everything
Considering cloud or hosted services for memory heavy workloads
We are actively monitoring availability and pricing with our suppliers and will always advise on the most cost effective and realistic options at the time of purchase.
If you are planning upgrades or concerned about lead times, speak to us early so we can help you stay ahead of the issue.
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