2011 Outsourcing Survey: Chasing Fast And Cheap

Think Different With Cloud

The cloud presents not only a new set of outsourcing options, it creates a rare opportunity to rethink your approach to staffing the entire IT organization. It moves the classic outsourcing model beyond a help desk or smart virtualization engineer to include almost every aspect of IT, powered by a new generation of consulting and cloud alternatives.

However, just chasing lower capital costs drowns out the very real requirements for investments in time, staff, and systems to support this expanding base. If we continue our march to the public cloud, most CIOs will need radically different skill sets in a few years. Internal teams will need to become managers and directors of resources and have core business process and information architecture skills. Simply being a great engineer won't cut it. Nor will trying to manage it all with an Excel spreadsheet and a hodgepodge of partners you can call on in a pinch.

We already mentioned bringing in HR, particularly for monitoring gig workers. In addition, invite the security pros to lunch and get them dialed in to vendor compliance. Chances are they'll find multiple gaps staring you right in the face without even trying. Stop with the "cloud is easy" b.s. and start saying, "We need to invest in monitoring, integration, and staff so we can take advantage of all the cloud can offer."

Hear this: "You cannot outsource your responsibility," says Steve Ward, IT manager at Montgomery Bank. "Everything is a trade-off. The gain has to be weighed against the cost." Exactly.

Michael Healey is president of Yeoman Technology Group, an engineering and research firm focused on maximizing technology investments.

InformationWeek: April 25, 2011 Issue

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