Today’s IT infrastructure environment is an exotic mix of technologies and devices to serve specific purposes. As business requirements have changed,
devices and technologies have been developed to support enhancements in applications and the ever-changing infrastructure. CIOs and other IT leaders
are faced with delivering more for less while support issues continue to mount. The classic disconnect between IT and the business has never been so
paramount. This requires new strategies, new thinking and quick responses to meet these challenges.
One of the most effective weapons IT leaders possess is the ability to leverage outsourcing and in this case, Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM)
outsourcing. The key to this success may be out-tasking, or off shoring, but with whom and where are the key questions of the day. And what are the risks
and rewards of moving data center and device monitoring and management to others while you focus on your core competencies? The answers to these
key questions will help IT leaders as they look for viable solutions.
Current State
With the development in tools, processes and technologies, RIM off shoring is quickly becoming an effective solution and strategy for CIOs looking to take
advantage of labor arbitrage without compromising service quality or network performance. It was initially argued that infrastructure outsourcing was so
closely tied to physical assets in IT and the data center to render it unfeasible for offshore delivery. However, upon further investigation, it was learnt that
much of the IT support work done by major corporations was being done remotely in their facilities or regional data centers.
Leading research shows that more than 70% of IT services surrounding the data center can be executed remotely. This due in part is to the advancements
in remote monitoring and diagnostic capabilities of services and tool providers, together with the introduction and adoption of Information Technology
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) as the de facto standard for IT Service Management (ITSM). These factors have been critical to the rise of RIM as a viable
delivery model for ITSM services.
Today, progressive service providers are investing heavily in the tools, processes and infrastructure talent required to successfully meet client
requirements and delivering outstanding service quality. These efforts have given corporate IT groups the peace of mind they need to move more of their
infrastructure support to capable providers.
What is RIM?
Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) is defined by analysts as the remote support and management of various IT services that are related to
infrastructure support from global delivery sites. The service offering encompasses remote monitoring and management, which includes support,
administration, maintenance, troubleshooting and performance enhancement. These services include the remote system monitoring of the following: Data
center, Networks (WAN and/or LAN including switches, routers, hubs), Database administration, Desktops, Servers and related peripherals and e-mail
systems.
Service providers who deliver RIM services must make substantial investments in highly skilled professionals with vertical competencies in selected
technology segments and subsystems. In addition, they need to provide robust enterprise tools together with voice and data-grade bandwidth for managing
these enterprise environments from afar. RIM services are poised for strong sector growth as companies look to leverage a global delivery model to
support their businesses. Savings can be as high as 50% because service providers can leverage automation, state-of-the-art facilities and highly trained
personnel to deliver these services on a 24/7 basis.
RIM Service Offerings
Typical internal IT services include the data center, network, PC, application operation and LAN/WAN support. These services are the more mature
outsourcing offerings in this market, and they continue to grow at a predictable rate of 5-8% per year. Today, however, many of these services are further
subdivided based on the client’s business requirements to outsource only specific functions. Today, one of the faster growth areas in IT outsourcing is the
use of the global delivery model for services. Organizations are looking to find low-cost, high-quality alternatives to dedicated on-site support. Service
providers have answered this demand with onshore, near shore and offshore offerings in application development and management. Success with this
strategy is encouraging organizations to look at IT infrastructure services that can be delivered remotely. Leading analysts predict that by 2012, less than
50% of the labor hours for global service delivery would shift from on-site to remote delivery.
The infrastructure services that can be delivered remotely:
• Application monitoring and management
• Data center outsourcing
• Network management services
• Security services
• LAN/WAN outsourcing
• Database
• End-user services
• Service/Help desk
• Storage service
• Telecom
Key Issues
In a recent survey, the vast majority of IT infrastructure managers at US$1 billion-plus companies noted that the issues have become more sever in the last
year. Executives are demanding consistent service-level guarantees for key application or services across the whole enterprise. It is no longer enough to
guarantee server uptime. What really matters today is the end-user experience and productivity. The primary challenges are how to describe the key
services in meaningful terms to the buyer, how to map these services to the underlying infrastructure and how to monitor the end-to-end performance of
these services. For most of IT, budget constraints and a tight economy marginalize and IT organization’s ability to deliver on these demands.
Forward-looking companies are already addressing the most important challenges by selectively outsourcing to organizations that can bring process
maturity using ITIL or Six Sigma process implementations for service delivery, as well as robust tools like service catalogs, network configuration and
bandwidth management, autonomics and auto-discovery technologies. Organizations should conduct an assessment, look at their specific situation, and
use these examples as best practice guidelines as they build a roadmap for continuous improvement.
Business Drivers
The following is a short list of some of the key business drivers for outsourcing RIM services.
• Cost reduction through labor arbitrage and utilization
• Access to state-of-the-art tools and technologies
• Proven process and continuous improvement capabilities
• Highly skilled technical resources available 24/7/365
• Proactive response
• Security
Cost reduction is clearly the number one key business driver for remote services as CIOs facing continued challenges in meeting end-user demand,
together with ever-shrinking budget; look for creative solutions that do not bring added risks. The good news – clients who have shifted these functions
offshore report savings of greater than 50% when outsourcing infrastructure services to these providers. A recent analyst report predicts that while
currently no more than 5% of organizational spending can be attributed to externally source IT-shared solutions, by 2010, that proportion will have grown to
almost 25%. Because infrastructure management today accounts for more than 70% of the IT budget of an organization, RIM provides a significant
opportunity to lower this percentage and allows the organization to invest in new technologies or simply to maintain their market competitiveness.
In addition to cost savings, the ability to leverage next generation tools, standards and processes are also a priority. IT organizations today are looking for
continuous improvements in all areas of business, and leveraging a service provider’s knowledge and skills in processes such as ITIL and Six Sigma are
added benefits for organizations. Add to that the ability to have a centralized view of their infrastructure, using a Web portal, and you achieve an effective
way to see into the enterprise using someone else’s looking glass.
Before taking the Plunge
While exploring the potential for leveraging RIM services, several factors should be taken into consideration in due diligence process.
Standards: From a standards viewpoint, remote management is the one area within IT where standards have preceded widespread adoption of services.
The best practices framework, ITIL, established by the British government nearly 25 years ago, has become the de facto for IT processes, but in reality it is
not a standard. The real standard is ISO 20000. With its roots in the ITIL framework, ISO 20000 is the latest and perhaps the most important standard in
the industry today. It is the one and only true measure of a service provider’s ability to deliver outstanding services and quality.
Security: In the dot-com era, security issues doomed many companies. Today’s security is still cause for concern, but what is more important is how the
service provider handles security from both a physical and technological aspect. You are looking to safeguard your data in every situation to ensure that a
hacker cannot breach your security threshold and navigate into your system using the service provider’s network. In addition, you want to make certain that
the provider’s tools are robust enough to prevent others from accessing your data as you share a common gateway.
Problem Management and Event Escalation: Establishing a responsibility matrix prior to the contract is an important step: Here are some questions to
consider.
• What are the communication and escalation protocols?
• How long should a service provider try to fix the problem before escalating to level two or level three within your organization?
Creating this matrix and decision tree allows for effective communications to flow on both sides and can eliminate a number of pain points in delivering
effective services.
Service Level Agreements: Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are the fundamental methods for measuring the performance of any group responsible for
delivering services – whether local or remote. Developing the right SLA is important. And, having the right baseline measures in place before negotiating
the handoff is critically important. You cannot expect the service provider to deliver on something your organization was incapable of delivering unless they
have the same degree of opportunity. As with problem management and event escalation noted previously, the concepts of escalation, security,
governance and collaboration must be discussed and determined in advance of the handoff.
Collaboration: Team collaboration via the service provider’s Web portal is essential, not only in gaining a big picture view of the network, but also in sharing
metrics and business intelligence information. Setting realistic and attainable goals and objectives at the outset are also very important. But there is
another element that is essential – the face-to-face communications and interactions of this newly formed strategic partnership. Building trust early is vital
to both the short-and long-term success of the relationship.
Delivering professional services today is really all about people. Reviewing goals and objectives, and issues and concerns on a quarterly basis is extremely
important, especially in the beginning of the new relationship. More important is the need to get to know one another – that is when trust is formed. You
cannot build and sustain relationships when you do not have the opportunity to meet frequently. Again, these are the important factors you should consider
in the selection process of a service provider and in the scope and range of services you are comfortable in outsourcing.
Improving the Infrastructure Remotely
Historically, outsourcing and data center monitoring and management were all about asset acquisition and transfer to the service provider. Perhaps it was a
great solution for the enterprise at that time, but IT organizations were severely hampered due to loss of control. However, today’s RIM service offerings are
packaged in a way that enable you to retain control of your IT assets, while eliminating the challenges associated with day-to-day IT operations. You reap
all of the benefits without the staffing or support issues, and you leverage great skills and technologies as well.
The support for all your IT infrastructure needs can be delivered both costs effectively and remotely by leveraging a service provider’s extensive global
delivery network, best-in-class processes, security practices, technologies and personnel. All of this begins with an infrastructure assessment to determine
the current state of your IT environment. The assessment will give you and the service provider a realistic view of the environment and allow for the
creation of a solid transition plan. This allows the service provider to transition services efficiently and without problems and will keep end-user satisfaction
and performance high while driving down costs.
Tools and Process
The rapid evolution and maturity of remote management tools, technologies and processes have given progressive service providers the ability to
efficiently and effectively manage the data center infrastructure ensuring enterprise reliability at the highest possible level while utilizing remote connectivity
to monitor, manage and deliver outstanding service quality. Central to this improvement strategy are remote management tools that provide network
administrators with the key elements needed to monitor the effectiveness and availability of their infrastructure. By leveraging an external service provider,
downtime is minimized while maximizing profits typically lost as operating expenditures. These tools provide a flexible alternative for network administrators.
They can seamlessly integrate remote management solutions into an existing infrastructure to create a complete Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
solution, to accommodate organization lacking a hardware infrastructure, or having the staff to support a full scale data center.
Call to Action: Next Steps in RIM Outsourcing
Though the trend of delivering RIM services from an offshore location is being embraced by organizations at a fast pace, not all initiatives have not been
successful nor have they met the planned business objectives. To reduce the risks associated with this level of undertaking and to ensure success, the
organization and IT leadership should have a clear vision of their end goals and an outline for an effective strategy. Here are some key action steps to
consider as you move forward with RIM outsourcing:
• Have a clear strategy for outsourcing – Adequate effort should be spent on developing an effective strategy. You need to analyze your portfolio to
establish which functions are right for RIM outsourcing and the right business model for implementing the strategy.
• Get stakeholder support – The pros and cons of the initiative must be well understood by your leadership and communicated across the organization.
Managers need to have an understanding on delivery processes and the outsourcing readiness of the organization. Having a solid process foundation
helps ensure outsourcing success. But some firms go down the outsourcing path because of the opposite reason – as a remedy for a lack of strong service
management.
• Conduct an Infrastructure maturity assessment – Knowing where you are today from a process and best practices standpoint will help you when you
create a continuous improvement roadmap for the future.
• Selecting the right service provider – Do your due diligence and homework well. Talk to reference accounts and ask a lot of questions. It is important
to go through a rigorous sourcing process to select the right partner. Customers need to perform due diligence, specifically around infrastructure
capabilities. It is essential to develop a partnership with a selected provider and works jointly to develop best practices and optimized service delivery
processes.
• Develop strong sourcing competency – Organizations that use outsourcing as a pillar in their business strategy must invest in advanced
competencies to manage multiple providers. For example, even with a sound sourcing strategy and best-in-class sourcing management, contracts will be
hard to manage without the right people who understand outsourcing dynamics.
• Retaining your intellectual property – One of the basic fears in outsourcing is that over time you lose a great deal of intellectual capital. Knowledge of
networks and systems is important to every enterprise. Just because you outsource does not mean that the knowledge should go with the transaction.
Make governance a deliberate process and ensure that everything is well documented. Appoint a single point of contact from your side and make sure that
person is working very closely with your service provider’s single point of contact.
• Develop a security and disaster recovery plan – Security breaches and discontinuity in service because of inadequate disaster recovery/business
continuity planning can derail a RIM initiative. The service contract should clearly define this requirement and s strong governance structure should be put
in place to oversee the implementation of the processes.
• Manage compliance Issues – Regulatory compliances are constantly changing and becoming all-inclusive. At the end of the day, your organization is
responsible for any deviations from the regulation. Stay current on the regulations.
As the IT industry has matured, risk mitigation methods have evolved to manage these risks. Careful planning, provider selection, transition and
governance management are essential to effectively manage the risks and realize business benefits. Most importantly, commitment from executive
leadership is critical to the success of a strategic RIM initiative.
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| Cover Story (Apr 2009) |
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