Why should SMEs consider IT outsourcing

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There is a rising demand for IT infrastructure to meet the requirements of SMEs with IT as a supporting business. As a result investments in IT solutions is becoming an integral part of the SME strategy. Bishwajit Sikdar, VP-business development, Neesa Group, which provides data center facilities under the banner of DATAFIRST, explains the importance of datacenters and how the initial skepticism about the data centers is now giving way to acceptance amongst SMEs.

A datacenter is essentially a physical facility that houses the servers, network equipments as well as storage and data security appliances. Huge amount of investment is pumped in to set up a data center. This calls for the deployment of IT personnel and fire suppressants, water leakages, smoke detectors, etc. While you will have to pay through your nose for multi-skilled manpower in IT, issues of accountability and attrition are always a threat to bring your processes to a standstill. In addition to that, the updating and maintenance of servers is a recurring investment.

Other recurring expenses such as licensing and upgrading of software, power and air-conditioning costs cannot be ignored. Moreover, backend IT infrastructure requires space, which otherwise can be put to better use. All said and done, uninterrupted flow of data and its safety is not guaranteed in an internal data center.

Loss of data has the potential of inflicting irrecoverable damages to any enterprise and SMEs are no exception. And for any enterprise, safeguarding data is an expensive affair. However, most enterprises fear hiring professionals to safeguard their data. If the enterprise needs to focus on other important aspects of the business, this fear needs to be overcome. The solution to this problem is to outsource to data centers that adhere to international standards given for efficiency in data protection such as ISO 27000, first of all, there is no capital investment, on the other hand there is RoI right from day one

On the customers' side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider's side, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Most importantly, data centers confirm to high standards of energy efficiency thereby conserving significant amounts of power. So, there is the 'green advantage' too.

Initial skepticism about the data centers is now giving way to acceptance. Services provided by datacenters are tailor-made to suit the requirement of their clients. This is a boon for SMEs as they get the latest technology at reasonable prices. When scouting for data centers, enterprises should look for quality, scalability, security, and reliability. However, clients should verify whether the data centers have redundant and diverse paths to avoid single points of failure for achieving the highest level of uptime.