IT Management
Computing, 5/30/02: Outsourcing: for and against
Bryan Glick
In these financially troubled times, it's a good idea for IT directors not to be stuck in a lift with the chief executive.
There's one question he's bound to ask: "So, do you think this is a good time to outsource your department?"
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Information Week, 6/17/02: IT Cuts Boost Productivity
By Mary Hayes
The do-more-with-less strategy is helping to boost IT worker productivity. Dixon Ticonderoga Co., a manufacturer of writing utensils, laid off 20% of its IT staff this year. That means Ardath Crandall, who used to manage only EDI, recently added systems analysis and process engineering to her job description. Others are taking on additional duties as well. "The people who have the expertise are mentoring their co-workers and helping them through issues that are new to them," CIO Garrett Grainger says. "I have a great team, and they're willing to do anything."
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Information Week, 6/17/02: IBM: We Handle The Services, You Keep The Equipment
Compromise lets customers retain physical control of IT assets
By Diane Rezendes Khirallah
While most business-technology executives understand the benefits of outsourcing, a lot of them are loath to let their IT infrastructure go off campus. The idea of handing off computers, applications, and crucial business data to a third party is unnerving to many.
IBM Global Services is offering a compromise: It will provide a wide range of monitoring and management services while letting a business retain physical control of its IT assets. Called Managed Hosting--Services Anywhere, it was introduced this month and will be available worldwide in July.
To make it work, IBM technicians will install a remote operations console at a customer's office or data center, and connect the console back to an IBM E-business hosting center via a virtual private network. That will let IBM remotely provide a number of services usually available only at one of its hosting centers.
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ZDNet, 6/17/02: Loudcloud revamps to focus on software
By Margaret Kane
Web infrastructure company Loudcloud said Monday it is exiting the Internet hosting business and will instead focus entirely on software.
Separately, Loudcloud announced it would change its name to Opsware.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Loudcloud is selling its managed hosting business to global services giant EDS for $63.5 million, the companies said Monday. The business, which has around 50 clients, should account for $75 million in revenue in 2002, Loudcloud said
The deal also calls for EDS to license Loudcloud's Opsware IT automation software, paying $52 million over three years. Opsware, which helps companies manage servers and business applications, is the "foundation" of Loudcloud's managed services business.
Loudcloud is the brainchild of Marc Andreessen, who played a seminal role in the dot-com IPO boom in 1995, when as a 24-year-old wunderkind he helped take Netscape Communications public. But the second time around for Andreessen has been a little harder, with the weak economy forcing Loudcloud to swap a growth strategy for one that conserves cash.
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TechRepublic, 6/11/02: Outsourcing CIO duties are a solid option for many enterprises
By Norman Dangelo
CIOs are supposed to harness their companies’ technological possibilities to improve their business realities. Yet, too often, these IT executives fail. This article examines the reasons and a possible solution: outsourcing CIOs.
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CIO, 6/15/02: You Can’t Outsource City Hall
The state and local government outsourcing marketplace was supposed to explode, but we're still waiting to see a spark. It's time to devise a new plan to revitalize public sector IT.
BY TOM FIELD
San Diego county's $644 million outsourcing pact with a vendor consortium was said to be the first wave of a flood of new public sector outsourcing deals. But today, the San Diego deal is a mess, with the parties embroiled in a bitter dispute over cost, service levels and a late ERP rollout. Elsewhere, across-the-board outsourcing of state and local government hasn't got off the ground—and it probably never will. The scope of the work is a major problem: Municipalities and states are so far behind in IT investment that once projects are under way, vendors find themselves spending more than expected. San Diego's consortium has already exceeded its projected investments by about $10 million and 300 people. Union resistance and publicity add to the intractability of outsourcing efforts. CIOs who remain committed to outsourcing are trying different tacks, such as breaking out smaller pieces of their processes or outsourcing individual projects.
Two years ago, San Diego County was supposed to be the proving ground for wholesale IT outsourcing of local and state government functions. Its seven-year, $644 million pact with a vendor consortium led by Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) was said to be the first wave of a flood of new public sector outsourcing deals—all of them aimed at making government faster, more efficient, more e-businesslike for everyone. As the deal unfolded, government CIOs nationwide had one eye on San Diego and the other on their own preliminary outsourcing plans. The top outsourcing vendors, fresh from Y2K, promoted the state and local government marketplace as their Next Big Thing.
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Giga, 6/14/02: Common Mistakes in Infrastructure Management
Many infrastructure management products end up as shelfware. The reasons can be traced to unpreparedness: a lack of management strategy and of clear management processes, belief that magic products will absolve all sins and gathering critical information the day the CD arrives.
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Microsoft
Infoworld, 6/14/02: Microsoft desktop licensing driving customers away?
By Ed Scannell
IN AN INFORMAL poll conducted by InfoWorld this week, 42 percent of respondents said that even though they currently use Microsoft servers they are planning to switch to non-Windows software on the server side because of discontent with the company's controversial licensing plan for desktop products.
The prospect of IT shops gravitating away from Microsoft's servers, at a time when the company is expected to deliver its critical next generation of Windows .Net servers early next year, could open up opportunities for competitors such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems, and the ever-changing collection of Linux vendors.
As of Friday mid-day, some 42.6 percent of 1,081 respondents said they were likely to switch, with 52.1 percent saying they still plan to use Microsoft's server software. Another 4.7 percent said they might switch but were only considering other options, and 0.7 percent said they were not sure what they would do.
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