Our business depends on the movement of people and goods around the world. Natural disasters (including but not limited to those as a result of climate change), pandemics (including the COVID-19 pandemic), acts or threats of war (including the Russia and Ukraine conflict) or terrorism, international conflicts, power outages, fires, explosions, equipment failures, sabotage, political instability, and the actions taken by governments could cause damage to or disrupt our business operations, our suppliers or our customers, and could create economic instability. Disruptions to our information technology (IT) infrastructure from system failures, shutdowns, power outages, telecommunication or utility failures, and other events, including disruptions at third-party IT and other service providers, could also interfere with or disrupt our operations. Although it is not possible to predict such events or their consequences, these events could decrease demand for our hardware and software products, solutions, or services, increase our costs, or make it difficult or impossible for us to deliver products, solutions, or services.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause disruption to the global economy, including in all of the regions in which we, our suppliers, distributors, business partners, and customers do business and in which our workforce is located. We continue to monitor the pandemic, and while periodic local increases and decreases in COVID-19 cases are likely, generally the restrictions due to and in response to the pandemic continue to relax in most locations. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to manage it, including those by governmental authorities, have had, and could continue to have, an adverse effect on the economy and our business in many ways. This includes, but is not limited to, a continued limit on the movement of goods, services, and to some extent people, including our own workforce, resulting in worldwide disruptions in our supply chain and distribution. Adverse impacts to our customers’ business operations and financial condition could lead to a decrease in their liquidity and/or spending resulting in a decrease in demand for and our customers’ ability to pay for our hardware and software products, solutions, and services.
The unprecedented and continuously evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic make the duration and severity of its impacts difficult to predict, which could limit our ability to respond to those impacts. Additionally, the impacts described above and other impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to it could substantially increase the risk to us from the other risks described in this Item 1A. Risk Factors.