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Follow UsMUMBAI, INDIA: CIOL IT Managers’ Conference 2010, the annual event, brought together young IT managers and experienced CIOs wherein they discussed key issues evolving in the IT industry like the emerging technologies such as cloud computing and adoption of remote IT infrastructure and managed services.
Though IT is considered business enabler, today enterprises and businesses constantly looking to cut operational costs and reduce expenses including the lowering the IT budgets.
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This trend has led to IT outsourced model or remote infrastructure, where IT infrastructure and services are managed and supported by third-party vendors and service providers. But the decision to use remote infrastructure and services always tests the skills of IT managers and understanding of business needs.
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During a session on remote infrastructure, Pandurang Salunke, IPCA Laboratories’ CIO, Suresh Shanmugam, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Limited’s CIO, Amar Shah, HDFC Standard Life Insurance’s IT Manager and Saurav Das, Meru Cab’s IT Manager, discussed effectiveness of the remote infrastructure and services for businesses .
“With the help of remote infrastructure services provider, we were able to remotely connect our offices spread across rural locations in India. This improved the services to customers all well as using the mobile infrastructure the last mile connectivity issue was resolved,” said Suresh Shanmugam.
He added that the moving on to remote infrastructure has helped their business to expand but importantly it enhanced customers’ satisfaction. While, Amar Shah pointed out how utilizing offshore infrastructure services and supports has helped to lower the total cost of operation (TCO) and improved return on investments (ROI) for HDFC Standard Life Insurance.
“By outsourcing data center services, we have overcome the bottlenecks of space and power shortage issues,” said Shah. Similarly, Meru Cabs also had opted for co-location data center services.
“I feel outsourcing infrastructure is a way forward — whether it is offsite infrastructure or remote managed services. It will not only save the cost but also provide many benefits in terms of monetary, IT budgets and annual maintenance of IT along with better customer services and support for business,” said Saurav Das.
While organizations are adopting remote infrastructure services, the selection of service providers of remote infrastructure or managed services is very significant to business as well as the IT heads.
On selection such service providers, Pandurang Salunke stressed, “Quality of services is very important along with timely support of the service providers. However, along with quality and timeliness, the overall cost should also be considered as one of the parameter in selection of remote infrastructure partner.”
Adding to what Salunke stressed, Suresh Shanmugam said, “Along the service quality, timely support, cost and affordability, the organizations needs to be very clear about the demands and deliverables from the partners.”
Sharing the organizational experiences, the experts explained how different types of organizations have adopted the remote infrastructure services and support for their specific business requirements.
Though there is a growing acceptance of managed infrastructure and services, the experts felt that still there are apprehensions about new systems, emerging technologies such as cloud computing and security concerns. Overall the discussion provided a good learning experience to young IT managers through the guidance and experiences shared by top CIOs and IT experts.
In addition, the audience comprising mostly young IT managers had a great opportunity to enlightened their knowledge and vision. Key speakers including Peeyush Ranjan Google India’s director for Research & Development and Country Manager, Arun Gupta, Group CIO, Shopper’s Stop and K Raheja Corporation, addressed the audience on subject of innovations and leadership in organizations.