IT Outsourcing - A Risk to Business Continuity?
By Tom Farrar
On September 15 2008, top US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Founded in 1850, in 2007 Lehman Brothers achieved record net revenues, net income and earnings per common share for the fourth consecutive year. In less than one year Lehman Brothers saw their once record net revenue plunge to $6 billion in the red. The question isn’t how does a mammoth organisation such as Lehman Brothers find themselves in this position but, in the current climate where seemingly financially stable firms are filing for bankruptcy, who is your business safe with?
Many businesses outsource (their IT) for various reasons; cost savings, operational expertise, capacity management to name a few. Outsourcing firms also often offer other services, such as business continuity planning and disaster recovery plans. Replication between multiple data centres, redundant links, work space relocation, ISO 27001 and BS 7799 are all good, but what happens when the company providing that service ceases to trade? Suddenly you’re in a position where it takes weeks to get equipment back, you struggle to get support and the whole affair leads to hundreds of hour’s worth of downtime, and possibly bankruptcy for your own company. The possibilities are endless and the scenarios frightening.
So, how can you safeguard your business? To start with, you need to think about how the company would cope if its provider ceased trading. This means you need to have your own BCP/DR plan created by your company or a 3rd party, but not by the provider. You also need to ensure that your provider has its own BCP/DR plan, and that it includes any equipment/services it provides you. Remember, nothing is impossible, and the more eventualities you can factor for the better.
In the current economic climate many companies may see outsourcing as a way to reduce costs, however it should be remembered that you must never outsource accountability; at the end of the day, the senior managers/directors of a company are where buck stops, solely accountable to the business, its customers and its employees.
Keeping your critical systems in-house and employing internal IT staff capable of running these systems is one way to ensure business continuity. Helpdesk and minor systems (a system that can be down for a week, or can be easily migrated) can be outsourced, but keep these systems simple so if needs be you can move providers quickly and efficiently. Keep your options open and keep an eye on your providers for signs of potential problems. This shouldn’t fall under the IT Managers remit only however, senior manager and directors need to take a real interest in providers and, after all, they have the relevant skills to assess the provider’s stability.
In today’s gloomy economy anything is possible and the seemingly mighty have, and will continue, to fall. A dynamic, reserved approach to outsourcing whilst maintaining internal ownership of critical systems and over all accountability, internally and externally, is essential. This will enable your business to make savings and ensure business continuity -and survival- in these turbulent times.
Tom Farrar is an experienced IT Engineer with several years’ tier 2 data centre / tier 2 carrier experience and a wide knowledge products/solution; Tom is practised in DNS zone management, enterprise anti-spam techniques, packet shaping and penetration testing. Tom is an a technical member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and a Red Hat Certified Engineer.
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