IT Outsourcing Advantages And Trends
IT outsourcing as an industry came of age during the Y2K crisis. Companies with massive amounts of data and programs had to convert all of it to ensure compliance, and the clock was literally ticking towards doomsday. The only solution was to outsource all the work so that computers would not go belly-up at midnight on Dec 31, 1999.
As the world welcomed the new century, IT managers and their corporate overlords were busy counting the millions they saved by pushing out all the manual data entry work cheaply to outside contractors. Since then, globalization and technology innovations have made the world a much smaller place. This has allowed for many more functions to be outsourced.
Today, the outsourcing industry, which includes everything from IT Outsourcing to business processes (BPO), healthcare (transcription) and finance/accounting, is worth $6 trillion. It is valued at $4 trillion in the US. The industry didn’t get so big just because it saves a few pennies. Turns out there are quite a few additional benefits available to companies who outsource their IT functions.
For starters, the company can focus on core activities instead of having to worry about network security, software licensing and hardware upgrades. Another big motivator is the need to keep the workforce flexible and the ability to downsize as and when required. When a company puts a new employee on the payroll, it has to deal with a whole bunch of regulations and union laws.
When the same work is done by an outside contractor, there is no need to worry about minimum pay, working hours, unemployment insurance, health and retirement benefits, etc. The company can reduce or increase its workload as required, without having to hire or fire anyone. This is even more critical when the company is in start-up phase or expanding into a new product or market.
A new company or division that outsources all its work from the start does not have to allocate budgets for IT infrastructure and staffing. This reduces the risks associated with the venture. In fact, this particular aspect of being able to eliminate an entire in-house department is the basic concept that is fueling the fast growth of cloud computing.
This is the latest trend, wherein everything is offered as a hosted “pay as you go” service. Companies big or small can make use of the same information technology infrastructure, platforms and software, and only pay for what they use. Use of such professional IaaS, PaaS or SaaS providers also improves performance as companies are able to use massive computing capabilities which they would never be able to afford in-house.
Companies who outsource in the traditional sense may also place some of their own employees with the contractor, so that they get trained and learn how to do the work. Another method is for a company to set up a subsidiary or partnership venture overseas, where it can get cheap labor with no regulators, labor unions or tax men breathing down their necks. The industry is still evolving, but one thing is for sure – IT outsourcing is here to stay, in one form or another.
Introduction To Cloud Computing Basics
After the internet & email, it is now time for cloud computing to take its turn in revolutionizing the world all over again. Libraries are filling up with books, and experts are offering all sorts of explanations to make it simpler to understand. The simplest thing that can be said is that it is the process of accessing applications, data and resources on demand over the internet.
The way it works is somewhat similar to consumers using utilities, like power consumption on an electric grid. In this case, users access whatever they need through a browser. The billing, similar to utility billing, is based on usage.
Everything is stored in data centers managed by specific providers, with each data center capable of handling the resource needs of several clients at the same time. The advantage for the clients is that they don’t have to maintain their own IT infrastructure. Existing infrastructure can be dismantled and the IT staff downsized accordingly.
While this results in considerable savings, there is an even bigger advantage because moving to the cloud provides the company with access to the data center’s massive computing capabilities. The company doesn’t have to pay for the whole thing and only pays for resources it actually needs. Best part is that this expansion or reduction of capability does not require the company to pay for an upgrade or maintain excess capacity.
Conversely, it is the providers who need deep pockets to maintain the massive infrastructure and retain the tech capability to handle customer resource requests on such big levels. It goes without saying that the provider needs to guarantee certain levels of security, performance and reliability. But it doesn’t always have to be either on or off the cloud for consumers and can be done partially too.
For instance, some specific functions or IT requirements can be done using a service provided via the internet by a third party. This can in the form IaaS or SaaS or Software as a Service where hosted applications can be run by customers in a browser. It could just as well be a platform as a service, where the third party provides the development environment online.
Categories: Uncategorized Tags: cloud, cloud-computing, computing, IaaS, IT, saas
What Is Infrastructure As A Service – IaaS
If someone came up to you and asked you what infrastructure as a service – IaaS was would you be able to give them an adequate answer? In the modern world things are constantly changing, the IT world despite trying to simplify things is still becoming more and more complex. More often than not the name doesn’t give a clue whatsoever as to what the product does so unless you have IT knowledge you are often sat there completely baffled, which is not great!
IaaS is basically a way which organizations can access disk space through their private PCs or in the office; they can do this directly through a private network or through an internet connection. This networking tool is rented via a provider by the organization so they are able to rent computing power.
There is more than one type of service which does a similar thing; this is just one of the most popular. This prevents a company from purchasing and setting up an infrastructure of their own. It can be hard to establish which service to opt for but with the ever changing times the services are constantly changing and they are starting to become familiar and overlap.
As with all services there is often more than one option so that you can choose the best package for you and your usage. This is the same with IaaS software; the customer can choose which would be best for them and their organization. This software does more than provide computer space, it also ensures the organizations website is available and they monitor the traffic to it.
The amount you will pay is not a fixed rate; if you want IaaS then you are likely to be charged on a pay as you go rate. So this will take into consideration the amount of data you use and the amount of traffic you have going through the network to their servers, so the more you use the more expensive it becomes.
As with everything there are different kinds of servers you can get alongside everything else, the types of cloud you can go for are; public, private, hybrid and community. Some of these are pretty self explanatory however others will require a bit more research so you have adequate knowledge on them.
If you want more time to worry about the important aspects of your organization, instead of worrying and focusing on something you don’t properly understand infrastructure as a service – IaaS is a good addition. It will allow for you to get on and work, without having to wait for new and updated software to be installed and so on.
Categories: IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service Tags: IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service, IT, IT Company, organization






