Punched in the Face: Gartner’s EUC Memory Shortage Report

Memory suppliers are failing to honor commitments made to OEMs, and the result is a sudden, severe shortage that's disrupting enterprise refresh cycles and blowing up budgets that were set months before the price shocks hit. In this episode, Victoria Barber is joined by Adam Reiser, Associate Vice President of End User Compute, and Dave Gruver, Field CTO, to unpack what IT buyers are actually doing to navigate the crunch and what smarter strategies look like on the other side of it. 

Drawing on Gartner's report How Enterprise PC Buyers Can Prepare for the AI-Driven Memory Shortage — featured in the February 20th edition of SHI's Research Roundup newsletter — the three discuss why this moment may actually be a forcing function for smarter, more resilient IT strategy: from platform diversification and intelligent refresh cycles to asset recovery programs and DEX tooling. 

Discussed in this episode: 

• Why memory suppliers are failing to honor OEM commitments and how that's cascading into enterprise budgets set in mid-2025 
• The parallels to the 2021 supply crunch, and why IT shops are better (but not fully) prepared this time 
• Platform and vendor diversification as a risk mitigation strategy, including growing interest in Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm/ARM on Windows 
• Device as a Service (DaaS) and financing models as tools for locking in pricing and smoothing budget volatility 
• Asset recovery and the rising residual value of older devices; why used hardware is spiking in value (and what a well-managed return program can return) 
• Repurposing aging devices as thin clients via W365, ChromeOS Flex, and IGEL 
• The shift from time-based to performance-based, persona-driven refresh cycles 
• Digital employee experience (DEX) tools and the explosion of players in that market 
• Why telemetry and device data are now table stakes for intelligent procurement decisions 
• Scenario planning over static annual plans; building flexibility into your EUC strategy for 2026 and beyond 

Resources mentioned: 

• Gartner Report: How Enterprise PC Buyers Can Prepare for the AI-Driven Memory Shortage 
• SHI's Research Roundup newsletter (February 20th edition): Available on SHI's LinkedIn page 
• Learn more about the memory shortage and how to navigate it with SHI here