Hybrid Cloud Starts to Change the Economics of IT Outsourcing
November 10th, 2011Many vendors still have ” significant gaps in cloud delivery platforms and skillsets”
By Dan Berthiaume
Infrastructure delivery based on the cloud has the potential to deliver enterprise-level value and flexibility that could lead to disruptive adoption by IT outsourcing customers. By improving utilization and eliminating excess capacity, Everest Group is among several leading industry groups that advise cloud infrastructure models can deliver significant cost efficiencies, particularly “hybrid” models combining the usage of public and private, dedicated clouds.
Lepeak: Clouded thinking
By Stan Lepeak, KPMG
The potential benefits of cloud have been loudly touted by both pundits and providers, and much of the discussion has centered around the inherent challenges and risks associated with issues such as security and data privacy. Yet, there has been less focus on the practical enthusiasm of the average buyer organization towards cloud, or the skills and capabilities the typical firm has in place to address cloud opportunities and challenges.
The Nearshore has reason to smile, says Atul at Neo Group
By Dan Berthiaume
The US outsourcing market for IT infrastructure appears set for strong growth, and Latin American providers are in an ideal position to capture much of this business. Despite what it characterizes as “modest buying intentions,” a March 2011 Forrester Research report predicts the overall outsourcing market in the US will grow 6.8% to $101 billion for 2011. Help desk, convergent telecommunication/network management services and data center management services are among areas where the largest percentage of infrastructure outsourcing growth should occur.
CIOs and Sourcing Bosses: Never Let Go Of Vendor Management
April 12th, 2011
By Tarun George
Outsourcing buyers, how important is being fully in control of your sourcing operation? If you answered “Very”, then you’re on the right track. Nearshore Americas has continually focused on vendor management and governance as a key factor in the success of any outsourced project. On the other hand, the value proposition of procurement sourcing is that the procurement organization knows more about vendor selection, management and offshore spend than you do. Therefore, relinquishing control of those aspects frees your team to focus on the core competencies of your own business. While small amounts of procurement for tactical functions may be a good idea, we think buyers should be extremely cautious with strategic end-to-end procurement.
Cassio Dreyfuss, Vice President at Gartner Research, feels the same way. In this special Q&A, he speaks directly to buy-side CIOs and sourcing leaders on how to adapt to the global ITO landscape, and why vendor management must be performed in-house.
Equaterra Survey: Outsourcing Buyers are Ready for Change
February 16th, 2011
By Stan Lepeak
How much does cloud computing really affect the outsourcing industry?
EquaTerra recently released the results of its Global Pulse survey – a quarterly poll we conduct on trends in the global business and IT services markets. As it regularly does in the fourth quarter edition, EquaTerra polled leading services providers and its advisors on what they project are the most impactful trends in the business and IT services marketplace in the coming year.
Respondents ranked how legitimately “hot” (defined as truly having a business impact on buyer organizations) they felt a predefined list of market trends will be in 2011, with a rank of one representing cold or little market impact and five representing hot or having a major market impact. Read more for the results.
Contract Rebalancing to Seize Higher Value
February 3rd, 2011
By Anupam Govil
Over the last decade, organizations have realized that outsourcing delivers more than cost savings. If implemented right, it can lead to agile and competitive businesses that can take on new market challenges. Many organizations in fact use outsourcing effectively and create significant long term value for themselves, but as another year rolls by and with the economy still running on half throttle, it is clear that the changed business and market conditions will become the new normal.
On the supplier side the landscape has shifted significantly, with the rise of new and maturing destinations, rapid vendor consolidation, evolution of cloud based services and proliferation of more transformative sourcing models. Companies must now recalibrate their sourcing strategy and priorities to adapt to these new operating conditions. As executives grapple with myriad priorities, we take a …
Indian Executives Say Their Move to Cloud Services is Hindered by Reliability Concerns
February 1st, 2011Seventy-five percent of C-level executives surveyed in India cite reliability concerns as a significant reason they are not adopting cloud computing, according to the fourth Global Status Report on the Governance of Enterprise IT (GEIT)—2011, conducted by the nonprofit, IT Governance Institute (ITGI), ISACA’s research affiliate.
While more than 45 percent of respondents use or are planning to use cloud computing for mission-critical IT services, those who do not plan to use cloud computing list reliability concerns, followed closely by security and privacy concerns, and existing IT investments as barriers to adoption.
Over 50% of respondents said their practices related to IT governance have led to improved management of IT-related risk. Other key benefits included improved business competitiveness (over 44% of respondents) and improved return on IT investment (over 34% of respondents).
“Issues such as cloud computing and …
Alsbridge CEO on Cloud: Large Providers Will Lose Market Share This Year
January 25th, 2011
Trowbridge: We're seeing Amazon, Google and Microsoft Azure peel off market share from vendors"
Getting beyond the cloud hype and anticipating a true services shift
By Tarun George
When talking about Cloud computing, how do you separate the hype from the information your business needs to get ahead? We wanted an insider perspective from a cloud expert, so we sat down with Ben Trowbridge, CEO of Alsbridge Inc, and asked him whether cloud is really all it’s made out to be. According to him, many large providers are trying to cash in by offering faux-cloud solutions, but they’re not what companies are looking for. Read on for more.
What are the key advantages that Cloud offers in terms of optimizing IT outsourcing?
Trowbridge: The main thing is the ability to rapidly and without any human intervention, scale IT up and down to meet exact requirements. There are no people running around a data center plugging in wires or sitting at consoles anymore.
By Tarun George
Agile software development and cloud-based sourcing are aspects of Nearshore Americas’ Four Major Trends to Anticipate in 2011 list. But how do they relate to an offshore strategy?
We asked Vadim Parizher, Director of Information Systems at a large bio-tech company on the West Coast, to deliver some of his own interpretations on these trends. In the interview that follows, Parizher talks about the strengths and limitations of both agile and cloud, and how they can be leveraged into a more streamlined IT offshore operation.
Coming Up in 2011: Integrated Sourcing, a Potent Cloud and More Flexibility
December 30th, 2010By Tarun George
Not surprisingly, as global corporations gear up for what looks to be a strong re-emergence out the malaise of the worldwide recession, there are clear signs that offshore outsourcing will remain a key pillar to helping drive this growth.
But what is going to be different in this rejuvenated economic environment is the offshoring equation will increasingly be based around the level of efficiency built in to the process of services delivered and the ability of providers to fully optimize potent new technologies like cloud computing.
Following is our own take on the major tidal shifts coming to the nearshore/farshore outsourcing industry over the next year.
