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Research-led · Australia · 2026

How Are Australian Businesses Maintaining Their Software Systems?

Participate in the 2026 Australian Software Maintenance & Reliability Study and receive insights into maintenance practices, operational risks, and reliability trends.

About the research

An independent study of how Australia maintains its software.

The 2026 Australian Software Maintenance & Reliability Study exists to build a clear, evidence-based picture of how Australian businesses maintain their software systems, cloud infrastructure, automations, data pipelines and emerging AI-enabled workflows.

We are speaking with business and technology leaders across a range of industries to understand where operational risk concentrates, how teams approach technical debt and modernisation, and which practices most improve long-term reliability. The result is a benchmark the whole industry can learn from.

  • ✓ Confidential 15–20 minute discussion
  • ✓ No cost — and not a sales engagement
  • ✓ Findings shared back with every participant
50
Target organisations
6
Research areas
15–20 min
Per conversation
2026
Report publication

Research areas

Six dimensions of maintenance & reliability

The study examines the full surface area where modern systems quietly degrade.

Software Maintenance

How systems are kept current, who owns maintenance, and how change is managed over the lifetime of an application.

Technical Debt

Where debt accumulates, how it is tracked and prioritised, and its impact on delivery speed and operational risk.

DevOps & Infrastructure

How cloud infrastructure is managed and monitored, and how reliability is engineered into deployment and operations.

Automation Reliability

What automations run the business, how failures are detected, and how silent breakages are caught before they cause harm.

AI Maintenance

Whether AI systems are in use, and who maintains the prompts, models and workflows they depend on over time.

Data Pipeline Reliability

How data pipelines are monitored and recovered, and how teams ensure the data feeding decisions stays trustworthy.

Why participate

Contribute to the benchmark — and learn from it first.

Participation is confidential and takes 15–20 minutes. In return, you gain a privileged view of how your maintenance practices compare across Australian industry.

Participate in the Study

Early access to findings

Receive the report before public release, with the headline trends that matter to your sector.

Industry benchmark insights

See where the market sits on monitoring, technical debt, automation and AI maintenance.

Maintenance maturity comparison

Understand how your reliability practices compare against peers of a similar size and industry.

Services informed by research

From insight to action

Our services are grounded in what the research reveals about real operational risk.

Maintenance Assessments

A structured review of how your systems are maintained, where risk concentrates, and what to prioritise.

Technology Roadmaps

A pragmatic modernisation plan that sequences technical-debt reduction against business priorities.

Reliability Reviews

An evaluation of monitoring, infrastructure, backups and scheduled jobs to surface silent failure points.

Ongoing Support

Retainer-based maintenance across software, DevOps, automation and AI workflows for long-term reliability.

Research process

A clear path from research to reliability

  1. 01

    Research

    A confidential conversation about how you maintain your systems today.

  2. 02

    Assessment

    An optional benchmark review of maintenance, reliability and technical debt.

  3. 03

    Roadmap

    A prioritised plan to reduce risk and improve long-term reliability.

  4. 04

    Ongoing Support

    Continuous maintenance to keep systems healthy as they evolve.

The annual report

The Australian Software Maintenance & Reliability Report

Drawn directly from the 2026 study, the annual report sets the benchmark for how Australian organisations maintain software, infrastructure, automation and AI systems — and what separates reliable operations from fragile ones.

Every participant receives early access to the full findings.

Participate to receive the report
2026 Edition

Australian Software Maintenance & Reliability Report

50
orgs
6
areas
AU
wide

Participate & enquire

Join the study or request an assessment

Share a few details and we'll be in touch to arrange a confidential 15–20 minute conversation — or to scope a maintenance assessment.

Confidential · No cost · Not a sales engagement