Outsourcing IT Infrastructure Management – To do or Not to do??

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Outsourcing IT Infrastructure Management

The smooth functioning of IT infrastructure is the key to successful business operations. That’s precisely why most businesses focus on accomplishing 100% IT efficiency. But the process of maintaining computing infrastructure is not that easy isn’t it?

Optimizing, securing, managing and supporting the mission-critical infrastructure throws in a lot of challenges that include:

– Maintaining a scalable and secure computing infrastructure that minimizes costs and ensures service quality

– Hiring and retaining a team of well skilled IT professionals

– Providing an agile and flexible IT infrastructure that enables quick response to dynamic market demands

– Ensuring adequate bandwidth capacity and traffic loads to support mission-critical application environments

– Managing and controlling increasingly expanding infrastructure

– Managing best-in-breed service providers and product vendors.

Trying to fulfill to these demands, a vast number of businesses have met with non-accomplishment. Their IT infrastructure has failed to run smoothly and reliably 24/7 that has affected the performance and functionality and disabled businesses to seek and seize opportunities for moving forward.

Outsourcing IT Infrastructure Management

This common critical plight of ‘IT infrastructure management failure’ has divided the business world into two groups – advocates and opponents of IT outsourcing. However, amidst a big debate whether IT infrastructure is best managed internally/externally, a large section of businesses have gone ahead and partnered with professional technical support and maintenance service providers.

So what has been the outcome?

IT outsourcing has enabled businesses to tap into new technologies, expand skills, respond to market demands and deliver services and products quickly. The entire IT onus, ranging from data center operations to application development and desktop management has been shifted. The corporate professionals have got empowered to concentrate on key strategic initiatives and meet the companies’ other pressing concerns while the external partner takes care of the IT needs.

The news of the terrific outcome experienced by these businesses have spread like wild fire and fostered several others to outsource their IT infrastructure management too. As a consequence of which, the ‘outsourced infrastructure management services’ market has expanded to an unimaginable level.

Quoting the words of Vlad de Ramos
– ”The total market for various outsourced infrastructure management services has grown up to $120 billion at present, according to Stephanie Overby’s piece for Chief Information Officers’ magazine. From network services, help desk support, server maintenance, and desktop management—there’s definitely been an upturn of offices farming out their infrastructure management necessities to outsourcing companies.”

So what factors have contributed to the stupendous growth of the outsourced infrastructure management services market? Let’s find out:

The benefits of IT application and infrastructure outsourcing are significant.

1. Focus on higher value responsibilities

Managing the infrastructure system is a time-consuming task. And things become more challenging when the business is fast-growing and new areas get added into the operations. Managing all the core competencies along with IT infrastructure becomes taxing. Often the focus on operational activities takes away the focus from infrastructure management necessities.

Having an infrastructure management partner enables businesses to comfortably hand over all the IT tasks while they concentrate on developing operational strategies.

2. Reduced Costs

Now this is a no-brainer!! Its simple math that hiring an external partner to handle the company’s entire infrastructure is less expensive than employing a team of full-time IT professionals. That’s the reason it’s deemed best for all fast-growing small and medium-sized businesses that grapple with finances.

SMBs can hire any renowned IT infrastructure management company and outsource all IT tasks at a reasonable cost. Going forward, they have the ease to pull back contracts from the partner and switch to another. Dealing with a permanent team of IT professionals is never the hassle for them.

3. 100% IT efficiency

Collaborating and partnering with an IT infrastructure management company ensures on-time support and prompt resolution of the most complex server and application problems. These companies have in-depth knowledge on the latest technologies and services in the industry and provide scheduled updates for security patches, antivirus, spam protections and network security.

Resultant of which, the IT system becomes robust and powerful in the long run. The business experiences high uptime with great redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities.

4. Smooth tackling of IT challenges

Businesses are often required to have multiple integrations, consolidations and changes in their IT infrastructure. Now, while this is quite troublesome for any business to solely handle, working with a company that offers reliable IT infrastructure management services make these tasks super easy.

Possessing in-depth information, these service providers precisely know the tricks and methods to handle all the IT challenges and render maximum value and minimal risk to the business.

5. Improved agility

In the present hyper-competitive landscape, it is imperative for every business to have “speed to market” and agility to respond quickly to dynamic opportunities. And both these factors can only be realized when the business brings in the services of a reliable IT infrastructure management company.

That is because in comparison to in-house IT team, outsourcing providers offer better support to quickly implement new developments within the business.


IT Outsourcing – Step towards Operational Efficiency and Excellence

Every business is dependent upon its applications and infrastructure components: servers, network, and security. Outsourcing IT Infrastructure management with a trusted provider ensures strategic effectiveness as well as cost efficiency. It puts the management professionals in a better position to give attention to operational areas, align IT with business objectives and optimize processes and acquire new capabilities.

Statistics also show that businesses who partner with an IT management provider are better at capitalizing on the market changes than others. That is because they get to use their IT partner’s economies of scale, high performance, and enhanced service delivery to address most urgent issues and bring in innovation and significant change.

Already, more than 50% of businesses have acted boldly and taken the leap to IT outsourcing. When will you??

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