Outsourcing of IT platform
In accordance to what IBM reports, in developed countries, 80% of organizations tend to outsource their IT platforms and infrastructures. Also, in accordance to credible worldwide statistics, the tendency to outsource in developing countries is increasing day by day. In this tract, it has been tried to inquire the benefits and considerations or verifications of outsourcing IT infrastructure.
In recent years, information technology has been the focus of many businesses. In a significant number of organizations, electronic services and software systems manage the core business cycle or play a pivotal role in carrying out the organization’s mission. Thus, the initiative of data centers (platform of organizational systems) is seen more and more in all countries. The direct cost of setting up and managing data centers, and the risks that data center disruption poses to the organization, make strategic data center management and macro-policies important. According to credible reports, 70% of organizations with data center crises have gone bankrupt. This has led IT managers and senior executives to make smart choices in investing in the IT platform. Quality-full service, along with coverage of potential risks, is the mission of data centers today, assessed by the SLA (Service Level Agreement).
Sensitive businesses, according to recommendations and standards, need two or three data centers with a short physical distance in order to manage risks. Each of these centers needs to be reinvested every few years due to equipment depreciation, as well as data center maintenance costs. According to Gartner, 70% of data center costs are related to electricity, water, staff, and maintenance and support contracts.
Presenting types of capital management model in data centers
The costs involved in data centers are Capex and Opex. In the world, some use a combination of Capex and Opex models, and some only manage their data centers based on the Opex. Here, each of these two models are presented, then the benefits and harms of each of these two will be verified and tested.
CAPEX (Capital Expenditure)
Equipment and facilities are provided with the initial investment of the organization wants to use, and the ownership of resources is returned to the organization. This investment strategy may be applied to passive or active data center infrastructure (network equipment, security, storage, and processing), or both.
OPEX (Operational Expenditure)
Instead of buying resources, the resources (and services) needed are leased in stages, as needed.
Usefulnesses and advantages of IT Infrastructure Outsourcing
IT infrastructure is the platform needed to provide e-services. Advantages:
Decrease in costs
Statistics and experiences of the Opex investment model show that using this model will decrease costs in the long run; this is how:
Periodic upgrades of equipment and resources: Data center equipment must be replaced every four to seven years (for reasons such as equipment depreciation and the benefits of using new technologies). In 15 years, a data center, many times the initial cost, will need to be reinvested.
Manpower: Maintaining a data center requires a variety of knowledge and expertise. Also, in order to provide quality service, according to the ITIL method, a data center must have a coherent decision-making structure in the process. Forming a unit that has all the necessary expertise to provide services in a data center will impose high costs on data centers (especially in the case of redundancy). In many small and medium-sized cases, employing a large number of manpower in technical and process support is not economically viable, and many of these workers have little work to do, but the data center to provide quality service, due to expertise. Different ones require a lot of manpower. Service Providers use a shared resource strategy in the human resources sector, and as the productivity of the workforce increases, there is a significant reduction in the cost of hiring human resources.
Updating technical knowledge and experience: Providing quality service causes technical knowledge and experience to be constantly updated. Given that the maintenance and development of the data center requires a variety of expertise and experience, organizations need to hold periodic training and the use of specialized technical consultants. The data center needs to change over time, and its development, review of new technologies and selection of appropriate new solutions, and changes will be implemented, including the cost of manpower and the implementation of various projects.
Decreased capital sleep: Private data centers of organizations, due to not using the full capacity of the equipment, experience unnecessary capital sleep. A review of the experiences of various Iranian organizations shows that between 20 and 50 percent of the costs allocated to data centers, including this type of capital sleep, are unnecessary. Reason: When designing a data center, the future must also be considered. Many resources are purchased with more power and capacity than the needs of the first year or two, so that in the long run, the organization does not need to set aside and provide newer and stronger equipment. While the Service Provider, which leases resources, benefits more due to the shared use of resources, and this reduces the sleep of capital.
In addition, reputable service providers will provide the resources they need at a better final price because they purchase annually in the IT sector. Therefore, the cost of Service Provider is significantly less than the cost of the organization.
Reduce additional organizational costs: Medium and large data centers over time need to purchase equipment to develop and replace old equipment, as well as to carry out various executive projects. This makes it difficult to manage tenders and projects (including direct and indirect energy and costs). In addition, over time, it works with several contractors. Contractors’ management, in addition to difficulties, will be effective in responding quickly to potential problems. Similar experiences show that it takes an average of one to two years to build and equip an average data center, including all the technical and operational steps, and two to four years to build a large and well-equipped data center. In the organization, during the construction and establishment of the data center, a lot of energy will be spent in the areas of human resource management, various business and executive contractors, consultants and supervisors, as well as the management of tenders and contracts. Remis’s field studies of organizations that have built data centers, show that managers evaluate the energy required to build an advanced data center as “high” and “very high.”
Focus of the organization on the main organizational goals:
Developing and maintaining a data center requires significant power in the information technology unit of organizations. Today, information technology units of organizations in developed countries, instead of developing and maintaining the IT infrastructure, focus on information technology as a tool to improve organizational business. Development of new systems, preparation of decision-making reports and productivity of the power of technologies and new approaches to information technology in order to increase organizational profits, are among the missions of the IT unit of companies and organizations of the new generation. Today, information technology units of organizations focus on software production and intelligent systems on platforms such as web and mobile to increase the quality and quantity of enterprise services and create new business opportunities and outsourcing. In the data center infrastructure sector, the organization’s information technology unit focuses more on its core missions.
Increase information security:
Today, cyber security has become very complex. Cybercrime has doubled between 2015 and 2020. Due to the variety and complexity of cyber hacking methods, organizations incur high costs to increase the information security of their data centers, and the amount of investment of organizations in the field of cyber security, has multiplied compared to previous years. Information security technologies are changing faster than other parts of data centers, and organizations are forced to make short-term investments of 3 to 4 years. On the other hand, skilled manpower in this field is low and the use of low quality manpower will be dangerous. According to Cisco, about 75% of an organization’s security risks are due not to security equipment, but to poor use of security forces, processes and instructions, and lack of technical expertise in centralized security management. On the other hand, covering different aspects of information security, in addition to the need for various specializations in the field of security, requires the implementation of various security projects, including ISMS, penetration testing and SOC projects, which in many cases cost the organization security a lot. Will raise. Powerful Service Provider companies, with efficient tools, processes, policies and manpower, can provide the organization with a much higher quality in the field of information security with a resource sharing strategy, at a cost less than the cost of the organization.
Increase service quality and reduce risk:
Data centers that need quality service use risk management methods. When an organization needs an SLA (service quality level), it spends a lot of money on equipment and technologies, manpower, processes and policies, and costs and execution of specialized projects. For small and medium-sized data centers, it is usually the result of a financial review of requirements that the organization has accepted the risk in some areas because it is not cost-effective. This risk acceptance, in addition to increasing the negative consequences of quality on the organization’s services, creates financial and non-financial risks. Example: SMEs are reluctant to use the latest data center standards for economic reasons. While they can experience high quality in addition to reducing costs with an IT infrastructure outsourcing strategy, equipped with a Service Provider.
Example: It may not be cost-effective for an organization with a medium data center to use several specialized technical staff to maintain the data center around the clock, or it may not be cost-effective for a relatively small organization to have the latest equipment and facilities Use standards.
Reputable Service Provider companies, in addition to using advanced equipment and technologies, have experience in processes and policies, and also use skilled and efficient personnel in the human resources sector, and this, in addition to increasing the quality of services, wAgility and rapid development:
Organizations’ e-services are expanding, and increasing Internet penetration has led organizations to invest more in information technology efficiency through new web and mobile systems. This makes agility in the development and change of data centers one of the necessities of the new generation data centers. In case the organization itself creates a data center, the development of the data center in order to increase capacity or provide new services, will need to perform administrative steps such as preparing tender documents, holding tenders, selecting the winner, concluding a contract and managing a selected contractor. So developing and changing the data center will take time and energy in many situations; If the data center infrastructure is outsourced, the organization can develop and change its data center within a few hours. This will be a very strong support for the decisions of top managers of the organization in order to develop the business and increase revenue.ill reduce the risk of organizations.
Tips on IT infrastructure outsourcing
Outsourcing IT infrastructure services for some organizations has some points that are mentioned:
Data location security
Some organizations are reluctant to put their information outside the organization due to organizational considerations. As the world’s information technology tends to outsource the IT infrastructure, new technology tools have been developed that can create a high level of privacy for an organization’s data.
Organizational risk
Some organizations assume that their service providers are not as sensitive to their electronic services and data. A review of similar experiences in the field of outsourcing IT services in banks, insurance companies, some financial and sensitive companies shows that this issue has been resolved at important levels such as Core Banking systems in large banks. In other words, some large organizations in some areas have outsourced information technology services, and this is happening at high levels. If the appropriate Service Provider is evaluated and selected, by anticipating the relevant risks in the contract such as SLA, not only will IT outsourcing increase the risk of organizations, but also significantly reduce the risk of the organization.
Previous investments in information technology
Some organizations have created data centers. They also have a data center support unit and a number of technical staff in the field of manpower. Many of these organizations can use outsourcing strategies for their plugin sites. Also, many of the current forces of the organizations can take on process and supervisory roles in order to improve the quality of services and services and guarantee the interests of the organization in the contract.
Factors in choosing the right appropriate Service Provider
If the IT infrastructure is outsourced, many parts of it will be the responsibility of the Service Provider. In addition, if the appropriate Service Provider is not selected, not only can not the organization get benefit from the outsourcing benefits, but also increase the risk. Data center outsourcing in the world in previous years was limited to physical infrastructure. This model has not solved many of the challenges of organizations. Today, organizations outsource on more than one electronic service, and in addition to the inactive data center infrastructure, they place the responsibility of the organization’s services on the Service Provider. As the business of organizations becomes more and more dependent on electronic infrastructure, service providers are business partners of organizations and play an important role in increasing the quality of services of the organization and even an important role in achieving the organization’s missions, including profit and income.