* Evaluating outsourcing for data centers
Should you outsource your data center? Data center outsourcing is a topic that generates almost religious levels of conviction – on both sides of the argument.
While some IT executives see it as anathema, others embrace it wholeheartedly. Often, the issue is seen as a trade-off between cost and flexibility – outsourced data centers are cheaper but at the cost of some business agility.
So the question – should you outsource your data center – comes down to the strategic importance of IT in your business. If IT is a strategic differentiator for your company, then you must run it yourself. If cost is the greater concern, you should outsource. Recently, however, we are seeing a different approach emerge: outsourcing the data center as a strategic move towards service-oriented architectures (SOA).
At the core of the SOA paradigm is the idea of IT as a service. Companies attempting to move their data centers in an SOA direction need highly specialized skills and quite a lot of courage – this is not an area of mature and off-the-shelf technologies, but instead an emerging technology with high risk and potentially high reward. With this perspective, therefore, some IT executives are looking to their outsourcers to provide the skills, strategy and implementation experience needed to implement SOA.
Since outsourcers are, by definition, providing “IT as a service,” they may have the tools, skills and motivation (cost) to implement SOA and virtualization in their data centers. If your IT department strategy is to increasingly serve the various business units as “customers” of an “IT service,” then outsourcers should be able to help, rather than hinder, such a strategy.
In a recent interview with the CIO of a large services firm, I caught a glimpse of this changing relationship.
“We went through an evolution from an almost adversarial relation in 2002 where they were an impediment to change to a footing where [they were] very forthcoming in sharing intellectual capital. We had to renegotiate terms [as we made strategic changes], but they had the talent to be a strategic partner,” he said about the data center outsourcer. This is not a new breed of outsourcing company disrupting the market – it is a traditional outsourcer, finally achieving the “synergy” touted in marketing brochures.
Here are some considerations for re-evaluating your data center outsourcing relationships (or the lack thereof):
* Is IT a strategic differentiator for your company or just a cost center? Depending on the answer you will want to select a data center outsourcer that understands your needs.
* Are you trying to get a grip on SOA and virtualization? Skills in these areas are hard to come by and a culture of “IT as a service” does not come naturally to everyone. Perhaps an outsourcer can help this strategy.
* What is your outsourcer’s attitude towards change? Are you buried in red tape for every change or is your outsourcer driving innovation?
Data center outsourcing may become a strategic advantage, if your outsourcer is able to help you realize your strategic vision of SOA and virtualization. Speaking to other customers and asking lots of questions may help you decide if an outsourcer is a cost-cutter or a trendsetter.
