Preparing for the Change

The industry is definitely sending a message here: business executives (both IT and non-IT) would do well to start educating themselves about this new trend and thinking about how their companies might devise a strategy to take advantage of it. The first step is to realise this is a services model. So, it would stand to reason you might want to find and begin using a trusted managed-services IT outsourcer. If you're a large enterprise, that's likely to be one of the big three (four, five) IT players above, or perhaps one of the other traditional, big outsourcing and consulting firms, who will undoubtedly be coming to the party. There's also a new breed of "selective outsourcing" providers cropping up to deliver this new model, especially to the small to mid-sized marketplace. Some of these firms are smart survivors that evolved or expanded from the ASP model that began in the late 90s. "The big vendors are pushing this as the latest 'high-tech', but companies need help embracing it," says Tom Kieffer, founder and CEO of Minnesota-based Agiliti, one such survivor. "And that's true whether they're a consumer of IT, or a provider or vendor. We see ourselves as the 'high-touch' part of the new model. In fact, we're now calling ourselves a utility computing service provider, or UCSP."

Though the movement to utility computing is still just in its early stages, it's far more than smoke and mirrors. Many companies have jumped in, from the largest - American Express and JP Morgan Chase, to name two high-profile announcements - right on down to the smallest and most virtual. One way to get started is by dipping your toe in, says Kieffer, choosing a small project related to a high-need area right now in your company, such as e-mail, security, redundancy or disaster recovery. "Ask yourself, where could a managed-services provider work with us now to implement a simple, real-life pilot to test the concept?" he says, adding that such a pilot project can be surprisingly low cost. "And you just might eliminate a mundane, routine task your IT staff has grown tired of, anyway." Realise part of this process could call for hands-on consulting, too. So, Kieffer says to look for a managed-services provider that also offers professional services "to help get your motor started". Find an organisation that can conduct an assessment of your company's readiness to adopt managed-services outsourcing, or perform a cost/benefit analysis of utility computing as it relates your specific situation. Is utility computing the dawning of the proverbial new paradigm in IT? The powers sure want you to think so. The marketing blitz they're unleashing will have heads spinning everywhere. But they're of a remarkably common voice here. What we're witnessing is not only the commoditisation of IT, but also the beginning of the "utilitisation" of it. In this developing paradigm, we'll all expect IT to "just be there". And isn't it about time? At last, there may be a shift from the how of IT to the why. Meaning, now IT gets out of the way so you can actually focus on your business. What a concept.