Tag Archives: cio

Evaluate your IT services provider on more than price

Posted on by Karen Karger

According to several analysts in this NetworkWorld article, “When looking to strike a deal with a service provider, enterprise IT executives need to take a step back from the need to reduce expenses immediately and think about IT needs a year or more from now. Outsourcing in a tight economy can represent a classic case of ‘You get what you pay for’ to enterprise IT executives.”

You know, EasyStreet believes in providing good value for our customers. We recognize that IT budgets are tighter than ever, but after 14 years in this business, we also know what it takes to provide the level of reliability and support our customers require — and don’t want to degrade our best-in-the-business SLA just to get the sale.

After all, the goal is for ALL of us to stay in business, isn’t it?

The article quotes Ben Pring, research vice president at Gartner, who says, “Oftentimes, you are going to be disappointed with the level of cost reduction you can achieve in an outsourcing deal, and if that is all you are focused on, inevitably, it will produce a bad deal. Historically customers get lousy quality of service when trying to squeeze an outsourcer. In the short term the deal may help a company’s bottom line, but long term, enterprise companies need high-quality services to better compete.”

The article goes on to say analysts advise enterprise IT decision makers to research service providers’ financials, product road maps, deal flow and turnover. “Outsourcers are not safe from the current economic conditions and may not survive the storm any better than others. There has to be a big focus on vendor risk and vendor viability. The deal may sound great now, but if the vendor goes south in six months, where does that leave you?”

You can read the whole article here. End of lecture.

Are Data Centers a ‘Utility’?

Posted on by Karen Karger

I ran across this recent InfoWorld article that discusses how IT jobs — especially those of data center managers — might permanently change because of today’s tight budgets. “There’s an incredible focus this year on driving efficiency,” says Rick Villars, vice president of storage systems at IDC. “What this means is reducing capital expenditures and trying to cut operational expenses wherever possible.”

The article points out that many small and midsize companies are beginning to think of the data center as a utility. “Such thinking would ultimately lead upper management to realize that hosted data centers could serve customers tremendous scale with such little effort and cost that CIOs simply have to start buying professionally managed services rather than spending resources to do it themselves. The writing is on the wall. Small and midsize data centers won’t exist very long as companies take a look at why they’re managing data centers themselves.”

We’re seeing this trend from the other side, which is why EasyStreet continues to focus on providing reliable data center and managed services for the increasing number of northwest companies that decide to move their data center responsibilities “outside.” (OK. End of commercial.)

Of course, the article concludes, “Internal IT operations will still be responsible for the last 10 feet of cable, so they’ll have to be even more aware of their users’ needs… This might be a rebirth of the jack-of-all-trades who can interface with users, make the software do what they want, talk to the back-end guys. Those jobs will be around for a long time.”

You can read the entire InfoWorld article here.

Young Workers Could View IT as Roadblock

Posted on by gregl

The days of the CIO as a viable member of the corporate C-suite may be numbered unless the role evolves beyond its current operational, shared-service mentality, according to Patrick Gray, author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology.

In this thought-provoking essay “The CIO is Dead (Long Live the CIO),” he says one reason is because of the technological savvy of today’s younger workers.

“Much has been written about the new generation of workers advancing through the ranks, a generation who grew up with technology, and spent their university years playing with Facebook and Linux years before ‘Web 2.0’ and ‘open source’ were bandied about in the boardroom. No longer the sole province of the computer science majors, the rising stars in your marketing, sales, finance and operational roles likely know more about technology than some of your IT staff. Integrating technology into their jobs is as effortless as breathing, and a monolithic IT organization that strives to block them from deploying relevant technology into the groups they manage is an anachronism to be worked around, rather than a critical resource.”

He continues:

“Aside from large-scale infrastructure like networks and provisioning hardware and software, nearly every new IT trend points towards those in operational roles making technical decisions, rather than leaving the task to corporate IT. Virtualization, cloud computing, Web 2.0, etc. will all push the implementation of new services to end users, and unless IT evolves, it will fade into a utility that is expected to be seen and not heard.”

News Flash: IT Budgets Are Flat

Posted on by gregl

According to a recent worldwide survey of CIOs by Gartner EXP, budgets in IT organizations are stagnant in the US and Europe, down somewhat in Asia/Pacific and up a bit in Latin America, for a worldwide net increase of only 0.16 percent for 2009.

“In 2009, executives face challenging global economic conditions that have not existed for more than 50 years,” says Mark McDonald, head of research for Gartner EXP, a group that includes 3,600 CIOs from around the world. “This environment is reflected in IT budgets, priorities and strategies as one-third of CIOs reported no change in their budget from 2008, while 46 percent reported a slight increase, and 21 percent reported a cut in IT budgets.”

The CIOs surveyed represent more than $138 billion in corporate and public-sector IT spending, encompassing 1,527 enterprises across 48 countries and 30 industries.

“All CIOs will face the need to restructure their budgets, cutting in some areas and investing in others, including those reporting no change in their overall spending level,” McDonald added. “Enterprises expect IT to contribute results in an uncertain economy. CIOs need to be decisive and resourceful in building an effective enterprise that can meet current and future challenges. Leading enterprises recognize the seriousness of economic conditions, but they are not paralyzed by them.”

Threats and The Four Horsemen

Posted on by gregl

A common dilemma for data centers—and EasyStreet is no exception—is that the person you can help the most may view you as a threat. “We see this too often,” says Jeff Biggs, CIO for Peak 10 Data Center Solutions. “The visionary CIO is not threatened by us. The tactical IT director is.”

Biggs was speaking in an interview with TechRepublic about the experience of Peak 10, which has a chain of mostly “boutique” data centers in the South, in cities such as Atlanta, Louisville, Raleigh, Nashville and Richmond. As with EasyStreet, a good portion of Peak 10’s business is helping businesses of all sizes offload portions of their IT infrastructure.

He says, however, that too many businesses attempt a standardized approach that isn’t always the right fit. “Whenever I see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I run for cover,” says Biggs. “The four horsemen are: ‘We’re going to have big Sun servers, Oracle databases, tons of bandwidth and a bunch of consultants.’ You need to start small and see if you can make it work. That way, you’re a customer for 10 years and not just six months.”

Biggs explained that most of Peak 10’s business originates with CEOs and CFOs frustrated with their own IT managers. “I frequently hear them say, ‘We can’t understand what our IT guy is talking about,’” Biggs says.

Pity the Poor Limey CIO

Posted on by gregl

Let’s face it: The position of Chief Information Officer can be pretty vague, prone to redefinition from company to company. At least in the UK.

A study of CIOs in British companies was completed recently by the Cranfield School of Management and Deloitte consultants, concluding: “The role of a CIO is ill-defined, confused, with poor understanding of its scope, and many CIOs feel perpetually out of the loop.”

Discussing the friction that can arise between the CIO and his/her executive peers, Cranfield’s Professor Chris Edwards said: “The role of the CIO is transitory; it has a clear beginning, middle and end. Our research has identified five states of information and technology leadership, only three of which will require a CIO.  It is critical that the organization identifies and deploys the ‘appropriate’ CIO type for their current need.  Frustration and confusion occur in situations where an ‘inappropriate’ CIO type is deployed.”

The report argues that the career path of the CIO is not linear, and the CIO’s detailed IT knowledge is not necessarily a prerequisite to success. “Far more important will be their ability to lead innovation, drive change, develop information awareness and expand it across the broader organization,” Edwards went on.

For a copy of the Deloitte study, click here.