Is Your Business Technology Ready for the Second Half of 2026?
Halfway through the year is a good time to check on your technology. Since January, someone has probably signed up for a new software subscription, a few people have access they no longer need, and nobody has tested the backups since the holidays. A mid-year IT audit catches that drift, cuts wasted spending, and closes security gaps before the busy end of the year.
Here are five checks worth doing now.
1. Clean Up Unused Software Licenses
According to recent SaaS management research by Zylo and Gartner, up to 40% of corporate software licenses go completely unused or underutilized. It happens when departments sign up for tools on their own, and you end up paying for two project management apps, three chat tools, and a file-sharing service nobody remembers buying.
Your Action Plan:
- Review billing records and compile a complete list of active software subscriptions.
- Identify user accounts that have not logged in within the last 30 to 45 days.
- Consolidate duplicate tools (e.g., standardizing on Microsoft Teams instead of hosting both Zoom and Slack).
Why it matters: Cutting unused licenses saves money straight away. It also improves security, because every forgotten account on a forgotten service is one more way in.
Tip: Require approval for new software subscriptions to prevent unauthorized "Shadow IT" spending in the future.
Infographic
Software License Waste by Category
Percentage of corporate software licenses that go completely unused or underutilized.
2. Audit User Permissions and Access Controls
People change roles, teams get reshuffled, and staff leave. Without regular reviews, access piles up. This is often called "privilege creep": people keep access to folders and systems they haven't needed in months.
Your Action Plan:
- Enforce the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): Users should only access the minimum data necessary for their roles.
- Confirm that offboarding procedures have fully deactivated accounts for all former employees.
- Review administrator rights across your cloud consoles and domain systems, restricting them to essential IT personnel.
Why it matters: Limiting access limits the damage when an account is compromised. If someone clicks a phishing link, the attacker can only reach what that person could reach.
Related: Tight permissions work best alongside employee security training, so staff understand why access is limited.
3. Validate and Test Your Backups
A lot of owners assume their backups work because the dashboard shows green checkmarks. But a backup only counts if you can restore from it, and the only way to know is to try.
Your Action Plan:
- Perform a live restore test of critical databases, shared files, and email servers.
- Measure your Recovery Time Objective (RTO): how long it takes to restore operations.
- Ensure your backup strategy follows the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of data, stored on two different media types, with at least one copy stored off-site in the cloud.
Why it matters: Hardware failures, storms, and ransomware don't give notice. Testing tells you in advance whether you can get back up quickly, or whether you'd be down for days.
Need help? Our managed backup service includes regular restore testing.
4. Perform Lifecycle Management for Outdated Hardware
Old computers and servers cost you in ways that don't show up on an invoice. They're slower, they fail without warning, and once the manufacturer stops releasing security updates, they're easy targets.
Your Action Plan:
- Inventory all devices and check their warranty and operating system support status.
- Identify systems running unsupported software (such as legacy Windows editions) and plan their replacement.
- Establish a structured hardware rotation schedule (typically replacing devices every 3 to 5 years) to smooth out hardware capital expenses.
Why it matters: Newer hardware means faster work, fewer support tickets, and machines that can run current security software.
5. Establish a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
Attackers change their methods constantly, so security that was fine in January may have gaps by July.
Your Action Plan:
- Conduct a comprehensive assessment of your firewalls, network endpoints, and cloud security settings.
- Review your external vulnerability exposure and check for leaked corporate credentials on the dark web.
- Document key findings and prioritize remediations based on the severity of the risk.
Why it matters: Regular assessments show you where the holes are so you can close them before someone else finds them.
Next step: Book a cybersecurity risk assessment with Spot On Tech and we'll run these checks for you.
