In 2025, companies still continue to spend their technology budgets inefficiently. Industry research shows that 70–80% of all IT expenses are consumed by infrastructure maintenance, fixes, plugin updates and servicing outdated systems. At the same time, the most important part, product development that creates value and drives revenue, receives far fewer resources than it should.
Why does this happen? Why do companies remain stuck in operational spending, and what can be done to change this situation?
In this article, we examine the main reasons that pull budgets down. We also show which approaches help businesses redirect money back into growth instead of spending it on maintaining the past.
The main reason: infrastructure debt grows faster than the business itself
Any company building a digital product eventually faces a snowball effect. The number of integrations increases, hosting and security expenses grow, the codebase becomes more complex and the technical decisions accumulated over the years begin to slow down development. At some point, the team is no longer working on new capabilities but is instead occupied with routine tasks. Developers maintain servers, CI/CD, VPN, SSL and mTLS. They keep dependencies up to date, deal with legacy code, resolve incidents and service outdated databases.
This is how the infrastructure trap takes shape. The more technical legacy a company accumulates, the more expensive it becomes and the less room remains for real growth and meaningful product evolution.
Plugin dependency. A hidden budget drain
Most popular CMS and e-commerce platforms have evolved through plugins for decades. In the beginning, this seems like a quick and convenient solution, but after a year or two such an architecture turns into a serious business risk. What exactly creates these risks?
The plugin model introduces five major problems.
1. Opaque code and lack of control
Plugins are created by third-party authors. Each one has its own style, quality and update schedule. Some plugins conflict with others, some stop being supported entirely and the business becomes dependent on someone else’s code.
2. Rising maintenance costs
Updating the platform almost always carries a risk of breaking functionality. The team has to spend money again on fixes and repeated adjustments. Maintenance becomes an endless cycle.
3. Security vulnerabilities
Global statistics show that up to 90 percent of WordPress hacks occur because of plugins. Each attack is costly. A company loses time, data and faces the risk of penalties.
4. Data fragmentation
Every plugin uses its own tables, formats and logic. Over time, integrations turn into chaos and any change requires disproportionate effort.
5. Scalability issues
When a system consists of many plugins, any growth becomes unpredictable in cost and timeline. The business loses control and stability.
Plugin architecture can indeed be convenient at the prototype stage. But for a scaling business it becomes one of the most expensive ways to maintain a product.
Legacy systems. When maintenance consumes innovation
Many companies continue to rely on outdated monoliths, custom-built CMS solutions, decade-old e-commerce platforms, old security protocols and business logic that is tightly embedded in the code. These systems may feel familiar and predictable, but they create one of the most serious barriers to growth. Let’s look at why this becomes a problem.
The cost of specialists who can maintain such a stack keeps rising. There are fewer experts with these skills and their services are increasingly expensive.
New features are introduced slowly or turn out to be technically impossible. Any improvement runs into the limitations of the architecture.
Every integration becomes a lengthy project. Connecting a CRM, payment system or external service requires months of coordination and development.
Scaling requires deep and costly refactoring. Older systems simply were not designed for modern workloads.
Legacy does more than slow a business down. It pulls money away from innovation and turns progress into a struggle with the past.
How companies can escape the trap of operational spending
To free the budget from routine tasks and return it to product development, a company needs to rethink its approach to infrastructure and architecture.
Step 1. Moving away from a custom backend and self-managed infrastructure
Maintaining a self-built server architecture almost always turns out to be more expensive than it seems at first. In practice this means ongoing costs for a DevOps team, monitoring, ensuring high availability, updates, security, backups, integrations and managing tokens and access rights. Most companies end up paying three to five times more than necessary simply because they handle everything themselves.
Step 2. Centralizing data and business logic
Over time, scattered plugins and microservices turn into a chaotic ecosystem. To manage a system predictably, data and logic need to be consolidated into a single model. Unified catalogs, unified payments, a unified user scheme and unified access rules bring transparency, reduce errors and simplify integrations.
Step 3. Using a platform with built-in functionality instead of plugins
Rather than relying on a set of unrelated modules, companies should use a platform that already provides core features. In this case the business gets a single API, a unified authentication mechanism, built-in business logic, standardized modules for products, orders, users and forms and a predictable cost of ownership. Maintenance stops being a lottery and becomes an organized process.
Step 4. Splitting responsibilities. The frontend focuses on innovation while the backend moves to the cloud
A modern product should evolve where the user sees and feels it. Interfaces, visual design, speed, mobile experience and UX experiments are what people choose a service for. In this model, the backend does not hold back progress. It runs in the cloud, providing stability, security and scalability without slowing down the evolution of the user experience.
How OneEntry helps reduce operational costs without a promotional tone
OneEntry is built on a different architectural philosophy. There are no plugins. Instead, it provides ready-to-use modules and SDKs that work reliably and do not break during updates. This allows companies to significantly reduce operational expenses and minimize technical debt. The overall economic efficiency of the platform is based on this approach, and the following points illustrate it clearly.
First. Eliminating infrastructure costs
The platform includes security mechanisms such as mTLS and tokens, CI/CD, hosting, automatic scaling, logging, monitoring and a fully managed backend. Companies no longer need their own DevOps team or server maintenance. This removes one of the largest cost drivers.
Second. No plugins and no plugin-related risks
Plugin-based architectures often cause conflicts, compatibility issues and security vulnerabilities. In OneEntry these risks do not exist. All modules are connected systematically, operate within a unified logic and are updated simultaneously. This ensures predictability and reduces the likelihood of incidents.
Third. Availability of ready-made business modules
The platform provides built-in functionality for core product scenarios. Products, categories, orders, payments, users, forms, pages, authorization mechanisms and templates are available immediately. The team does not spend resources developing these components from scratch, which reduces development costs and speeds up delivery.
Fourth. Fast launch of new products
The platform enables teams to assemble a working application in days rather than months. Ready-made templates for stores and services help launch faster, while the team can focus on the frontend, interfaces and UX instead of infrastructure.
Fifth. Reduction of technical debt
The architecture remains controlled and flexible. Legacy does not accumulate and the system evolves consistently, preventing the issues that older solutions typically create.
Our conclusion: companies should invest in growth, not maintenance
Every dollar spent on updating a plugin or fixing outdated code is a dollar that could have been directed toward product development and new opportunities. If a business aims to accelerate time to market, control its budget, reduce risks, move away from legacy and scale without chaos, it needs to rethink its approach to infrastructure and the way internal systems are built.
An IT model should support growth rather than limit it. When the backend becomes a reliable service, the product develops faster, the team works with more confidence and resources are used more effectively. We created OneEntry with this philosophy in mind, although the idea itself is much broader and applies to any modern architecture. Because in our view, the businesses that win are those that stop fighting with legacy and instead create room for growth.
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