Written by Russell Bristow
Memory prices have risen by 50% to 200% this year, and the lead times attached to that memory now run from nine months to eighteen. For a CIO trying to stand up an AI project, that combination changes the buying decision as well as the bill. The right response is a procurement partner with real-time visibility across UK supplier stock and people who can source against a spec, not a plan built on waiting for the market to settle.
Network World's report, IT infrastructure shortages are real and lasting, sets out the scale. Jon Forest, a VP analyst at Gartner, is quoted putting memory price rises at 50% to 200%, which has pushed PC prices up 35% to 45% and some server prices over 125%. Network switches are affected too. Memory sits at the root of it, and demand from AI build-outs is what keeps it there. More than halfway through 2026, this is the working condition and looks set to continue for the foreseeable.
Why waiting is now the expensive option
Waiting is the expensive option because the two things a wait-and-hope strategy relies on, falling prices and shortening lead times, are both moving the wrong way. When a server carries a nine-to-eighteen-month lead time, the decision to defer an order is a decision to delay the project it feeds by the same amount. For an AI use case with a fixed business sponsor and a fixed budget cycle, that delay has a cost the hardware saving never recovers.
There is a second-order effect that hits mid-market teams hardest. Large enterprises place volume orders early and hold allocation with vendors. An organisation of 300 to 5,000 users rarely has that leverage, so it competes for whatever stock is left after the big allocations clear. That is precisely the position where a single reseller quote with a single lead time tells you almost nothing useful.
What real-time supplier visibility actually buys you
Real-time visibility across UK supplier availability lets a buyer see where an item actually sits in stock today, rather than accepting one distributor's lead time as the whole view of the market. The same component is often held by several suppliers at different quantities and different prices, and that spread is where a shortage becomes manageable.
The practical value shows up in two clear ways. First, a genuine picture of stock turns a nine-month quoted lead time into a same-week or next-day option when the item exists somewhere in the channel. Second, it lets a procurement team spot when a substitute part or a different configuration clears the same requirement at a fraction of the wait. Neither is possible from a single catalogue viewed through a single supplier.
When off-the-shelf will not meet the spec
Sometimes the machine a customer needs is not one anybody stocks. CloudCoCo recently met an AI use case where the memory required exceeded what a major OEM shipped in its standard laptop configuration. Rather than wait for a bespoke build with its own lead time, the memory was sourced externally and fitted to the off-the-shelf units to reach the specification. The customer got machines that matched the workload without joining a queue for a factory-configured model that may not have existed at the memory tier they needed.
That approach carries trade-offs a buyer should name before choosing it. Warranty terms on OEM hardware can be affected by third-party components, so the support position needs settling up front but again the right partner can help identify the options available. The point is that the option exists, and a procurement team that can source components as well as whole units can reach specifications the standard catalogue cannot.
What a CIO should ask a procurement partner now
The useful questions are about visibility and sourcing, rather than price lists and discount. Can the partner show live stock across UK suppliers for a given part, or only quote from one? Will someone work a requirement proactively, finding the item or a workable substitute, rather than returning a lead time and leaving the buyer to accept it? Can they source components to hit a spec when no stock configuration meets it? Where does the responsibility sit for warranty and support once a machine has been altered?
A partner that answers those plainly changes what a shortage means for a project. It becomes a sourcing problem with several routes through it, rather than a fixed wait imposed on the whole plan.
This is the work CloudCoCo does through its procurement practice: live supplier availability, buyers who source against a spec, and the judgement to say when a substitute or an external component is the right call and when it is not. The shortage described by Gartner and reported by Network World is the market for at least the rest of 2026. The organisations that keep their AI projects moving through it will be the ones that stop treating hardware as something you order and wait for.
Keep your IT projects moving
CloudCoCo can help you source the right hardware, identify workable alternatives and plan around current lead times.
Talk to CloudCoCo about your IT procurement requirements or call 0330 236 9070.
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