Enterprises blow nearly a third of software budgets on upgrades they never asked for

Enterprises say nearly a third of their software budgets goes on upgrades, migrations, and licensing changes they wouldn't have chosen, according to research suggesting that keeping vendors happy has become an expensive business.

The study, conducted by Censuswide for software support provider Origina and published with Thinkers50, surveyed 2,018 senior IT decision-makers in the US and UK. Respondents put the average share at 28 percent.

And customers aren't necessarily getting anything better for their money. Some 95 percent of respondents said they had paid for at least one vendor-driven change in the past three years despite expecting worse reliability, performance, or value.

The most recent vendor-driven change cost respondents' organizations an average of $12.87 million.

Origina calls this the "software tax," but unlike most taxes, it comes with the added pleasure of potentially making your IT systems worse.

The costs don't stop at software either. According to the survey, 91 percent of respondents said their organizations had retired working hardware …