Buildings today run on a patchwork of controllers, gateways, cameras, access systems and cloud-linked services that rarely get routine software attention after turnover. In this episode Alex Morgan interviews Michael Harrington to unpack the real-world tradeoffs between keeping systems current and keeping buildings operational. We examine why updates are deferred, common failure modes from unpatched devices, and a pragmatic approach to establishing an update cadence that respects tenant uptime and capital limits. Michael shares vendor-agnostic governance steps, procurement questions that force update transparency, and a lightweight validation process that proves updates before they touch production. Listeners will walk away with a short checklist to add to operations manuals, concrete prompts for turnover meetings, and a way to balance resilience, risk, and cost without becoming an endless maintenance project.