|
Vendor Accent
Remote Infrastructure Management: Zero Tolerance Zone
 There
is no room for the revenue loss, reduced productivity, and higher costs, that
downtime brings. By Atul Hemani
Does the thought of having to cope up with up-to-the-minute business intelligence
(BI) run a shiver down your spine? Do you often get nightmares about your production
systems being down due to hundreds of ad hoc queries and complex user demands?
If the answer is yes, take a deep breath, for you are not on a lonely planet.
Research says that two out of three companies see Infrastructure Management
and Maintenance as “major pains” in deploying real-time BI systems.
 It
is a known fact that most of the companies completely miss out on the important
business benefits of making sound decisions based on real-time information.
These companies recognise that there are real business benefits to having access
to timely information to make sound decisions. But infrastructure headaches
are holding them back from wide scale deployments of real-time business intelligence
systems. They are scared, they know that their infrastructures can’t support
real-time reporting, and they fear the high costs of deploying complex systems
in these days of budget constraints.
Today, professionals realise the importance of real-time BI. With one in six
companies needing up-to-the-minute data freshness and one in twelve needing
it hourly, they realise competitive advantage is at risk. To fulfil these dreams,
professionals have opted to take the route of outsourcing management of their
Infrastructure to the experts who give the option of either managing these remotely
or onsite.
India has always been on the forefront of providing IT related and IT Enabled
services globally. From developing to packaging to BPOs, India has excelled
in all.
|
In today's technology driven environment
it makes sense for a company, to switch to IMS, if it wants to meet the
deliverables required to have a foothold in the cut-throat competition
of a booming global market
|
Now the next big wave to hit the offshore model for India is the Infrastructure
Management Services (IMS).
IMS embodies all the services provided to a company for the easy running of
its IT infrastructure by monitoring, managing and scaling the performance of
all its IT related requirements.
In today’s technology driven environment it makes sense for a company,
to switch to IMS, if it wants to meet the deliverables required to have a foothold
in the cut-throat competition of a booming global market.
India has recently started working towards getting its share of the $80 billion+
IMS global market. India is presently exporting $300 million IMS related services,
which are estimated to grow to over $1 billion in 3 years.
Remote Infrastructure Management or RIM is the latest offshore model through
which the IT requirements of an organisation, specifically the support functions
of management and maintenance are dealt with remotely. According to IDC, within
managed services, RIM will grow potentially much faster than any other category.
The debacle of 9/11 and the floods of 7/26 in Mumbai brought forward the importance
of the location of infrastructure and Disaster Recovery centres, which were
answered by RIM.
RIM acts as a one-stop shop for all IT requirements of an organisation. For
an effective RIM, having an efficient Network Operating Centre (NOC) is imperative.
Equipped with a powerful set of hardware and software tools and a highly skilled
team of engineers, NOC provides services towards monitoring, diagnosing and
solving any IT infrastructure disturbances. This is done 24x7 ensuring fast
and sure shot ways to tackle problems arising any where on the globe. The market
trend is towards RIM and India enjoys certain advantages over other nations.
Lower unit cost location India enjoys the reputation of being a matured player
in providing support for IT related services. Advancements in the telecomm sector
has spurred higher reliability and increased connectivity at a low price, an
important element in the RIM model of service delivery. An IDC report estimates
about $180 bn of internal IT spending could be outsourced. The ‘India Advantage’
psyche positions India to get a sizeable chunk of this value.
| Cost – To hire the services of
an off shore IT vendor who has the infrastructure and a team of dedicated,
technology driven and skilled staff, is more cost effective than building
an in-house infrastructure management system and investing in a team to
execute it.
Technology –
Keeping track of the ever-changing technology and upgrading your system
is not only expensive but also time consuming. It is wise, to hire a third
party vendor whose core competency is technology, to do the work for you
so that you can concentrate on your core competencies.
Staff – Hiring,
retaining and managing skilled IT people is difficult for a company whose
IT needs are only for the smooth functioning of its resources. These people
are attracted to IT specific companies where they can grow and put to
use their skills.
Availability –
It is of prime importance for the IT infrastructure of a company to perform
to its optimum level and be available at any given point of time. To achieve
this, it has to be monitored, managed, rectified in case of any problems
and upgraded 24x7x365. RIM has made this possible by the use of dedicated
skilled resources, which work seamlessly across different time zones.
|
The author is the Atul Hemani, Chairman and Managing Director,
Omnitech Infosolutions
|
