Evan Berger, CEO, Go Rentals, argues that local businesses should prioritise agility and scalable expenditure over ownership, ensuring they aren't left holding outdated gear in a fast-moving digital landscape
If you look at the macroeconomic forecasts for South Africa this year, we are clearly entering a period in which efficiency goes beyond metrics for operations managers. It has become a survival strategy for the boardroom.
For years, technology budgets in South African organisations have been bloated by a "growth at all costs" mindset. We over-provisioned servers to ensure uptime. We bought hardware we did not need just to be safe. We signed rigid multi-year contracts to lock in pricing.
Currently, from an IT cost perspective, the economic outlook is stabilising, with a stronger Rand and cooling interest rates offering welcome relief. However, this creates a temptation to lock into the typical 36-month tech refresh cycles. That is a mistake.
Assuming the business environment will look the same in 2026 is also a dangerous bet. The greatest risk to the balance sheet is no longer only the volatility of the currency, but also the shapeshifting nature of AI on the entire IT environment.
Here are five ways local businesses can optimise costs and ensure their technology expenditure does not become a liability in 2026.
Stop paying the lazy tax on cloud
Cloud computing was sold to us on the promise that we only pay for what we use. The reality for most South African CIOs is that they are paying for what they provisioned three years ago and forgot to turn off.
We call this the lazy tax. Industry data suggests that nearly a third of cloud spend is wasted on idle resources. In 2026, manual audits will no longer be enough because humans cannot keep up with the complexity of modern billing data.
The solution is in AI-driven Financial Operations (FinOps). We are moving toward a model where AI agents actively manage your infrastructure. These tools can automatically shut down non-production environments after hours or resize servers based on real-time demand. It requires a cultural shift of trusting software to manage software, but the savings go straight to the bottom line.
The Windows 10 deadline has passed
We are now almost four months past the October 2025 deadline, when Microsoft ended support for Windows 10. If your organisation is still running the old OS, you are now in a difficult position. You are likely paying for Extended Security Updates (ESU) just to stay compliant. This is dead money. You are paying fees to keep old machines alive rather than investing in new technology.
The priority for 2026 must be to stop this cash drain. Instead of capitalising a massive fleet refresh to get onto Windows 11, the smarter play is shifting to a Device-as-a-Service model. By treating hardware as a monthly operating expense rather than a capital layout, you smooth out the cash flow spike. It also shifts the burden of disposal and lifecycle management to the vendor, which is critical given our local e-waste challenges.
Hedge against the currency
Technology is an imported commodity. Whether it is software licensing or physical servers, the pricing is almost always linked to the Dollar or Euro. When the Rand weakens, your IT budget effectively shrinks.
You cannot control the currency markets, but you can control your exposure. We advise clients to restructure contracts to remove volatility. Where possible, you should push for billing in Rand to shift the foreign exchange risk to the vendor.
If that is not possible, then look for flexibility. The old way of signing three-year fixed-volume contracts is risky in an unpredictable economy. You need the ability to scale your licensing and hardware down if your staff count drops. Paying for licenses and hardware for employees who no longer work for you is a silent budget killer.
Treat energy as an IT cost
In South Africa, electricity is a utility bill, an operational risk and a major cost centre.
We need to start viewing hardware refreshes through the lens of power efficiency. Running an on-premise server room is becoming prohibitively expensive when you factor in cooling costs and the diesel required to keep it running during outages.
Moving workloads to hyperscale cloud providers often yields an energy dividend because you are offloading the power cost to their highly efficient data centres. When you do buy physical hardware, prioritising Energy Star ratings is no longer just a green box-ticking exercise. Across a fleet of 500 laptops, the difference in power consumption between efficient and inefficient units is a tangible line item on the electricity bill.
Consolidate the shadow AI sprawl
Your employees are already using generative AI. The problem is that they are doing it in silos. They are often expensing individual subscriptions to tools like ChatGPT, Copilot or Midjourney on company credit cards.
This shadow AI creates two problems. First, you are paying retail prices for tools that could be bought at a wholesale enterprise rate. Second, you have corporate data leaking into public models with no governance.
The fix for 2026 is an immediate audit of software subscriptions. Consolidate those fifty individual users into a single enterprise license. You will secure a volume discount, regain control over your data, and stop the leakage of small recurring credit card charges that add up to a significant annual loss.
Predictability is the prize. By tightening these five screws, South African businesses can enter 2026 with a tech stack that is lean, compliant, and ready to support growth rather than hinder it.
