SALISBURY, MD- Microchip shortages across the country have resulted in high prices and long wait times for electronic devices like computers, laptops, servers, network switches, and their components. Salisbury technology solutions company Inacom tells us for consumers, the best approach is to ditch brand loyalty and work with whatever product is compatible and in stock. However, for businesses and critical infrastructure systems, parts are highly specific, low in stock, and on a long delay.

“We have power supplies and batteries that power the server arrays that went down we are running a backup at the police department, those are all critical servers,” said Salisbury Director of Information Services Bill Garrett.

Garret says many infrastructure systems in Salisbury, are facing the same challenges, and are forcing the town to rely on supply reserves and contingency systems to keep them online.

“We had a battery array that went out at one of our water plants, we are still waiting on the delivery of those they are guessing sometime around January, and in the meantime, we have had to dip into our only backups,” he said.

Garrett tells us the shortage has also affected the supply of workstations for the city government, with the city only thing week receiving 39 computers that had been on backorder for 3 months. The 50,000 dollar order dates back to 2020, and would have likely cost up to 20 percent more had it been ordered more recently Garrett said.

He says the town was able to use legacy equipment during the delay period, but that too comes with a cost.

“These machines that are supposed to be decommissioned at the end of their life we do have the ability to leave them limping along until replacements come but it is a strain on both resources and to our inventory,” Garret said.

But it’s not just Governments and Localities facing a shortage, businesses wanting to upgrade server systems or workstations are facing longer waits and a closing window for tax incentives on technology upgrades that must be operational by the end of the year to qualify.

Inacom in Salisbury works to provide those services for businesses, building workstations, servers, and switches for businesses to run onsite. Executive Vice President at Incaom Travis Fisher tells us, the wait time for those services has shot up, due in part to just how many different components they require.

“We may need 8 hard drives we may need 6 sticks of ram we might need two processors and if we can’t get those …….

Source: https://www.wmdt.com/2021/11/technology-shortage-hits-towns-businesses-consumers/