Many organisations today have already investigated the feasibility of consolidation and virtualisation, and are now exploring the possibility of pooling services in order to further reduce costs. In essence, these are all options when preparing to move the business toward 'cloud-based' or 'outsourced-based' environments, and will most likely provide cost relief to organisations which are cash-strapped or prefer an OpEx type approach.
On this note, Business Connexion, in partnership with ITWeb, is conducting an online Network Connectivity survey.
Doug Woolley, Business Connexion group executive: technology group says: "Most organisations in South Africa have, to date, preferred to have their own ICT infrastructure; however, they are looking closely at, and considering, outsourcing all (or at least some) of their processing and storage needs. Then you get those organisations whose structure, nature of business and services delivered are already ideally suited to the outsource model. Security, competitiveness and the need for uniqueness are essential, and these could well be some of the driving factors for some businesses as to why they prefer an in-house strategy."
Many organisations are opting to deploy infrastructure with low risk and low levels of maintenance and network connectivity solutions that provide peace of mind.
Commenting further on this observation, Woolley adds: "This would imply that the network would need to provide some unique characteristics. Ensuring minimal human intervention and automation would be crucial. These characteristics are inherent in some network connectivity solutions as a 'comprehensive offer', whilst others need to be engineered in order to provide the required features and functions."
CXO-level personnel within companies, do not want their businesses to be hampered by downtime, non-availability of systems and the introduction of any form of ICT risk. It is for this reason that organisations prefer to deal with vendors who have made a substantial investment in Research and Development, who are able to provide sound technical products, developed an innovation roadmap with minimal risk and deliver on a comprehensive management, maintenance and support infrastructure," Woolley adds.
In Woolley's opinion, organisations should certainly have a comprehensive strategy whereby network connectivity cost is measured and contained. This should include upfront capacity planning, new services and application identification, and the expansion of all ICT related components within the organisation. With there being a large number of components which could be included within the realm of 'network connectivity', it becomes an extremely complex environment to measure and manage one's spend.
ICT whole offer
Woolley comments on the model of an ICT organisation having the capability of delivering on the 'whole offer': "An ICT organisation should be capable of providing product, innovation, and outsourced/managed services with a strong maintenance/support and skills base."
"The overall success of network connectivity solutions must be evaluated based on both the customer/consumer aspect, as well as the provider component. Organisations want their customers/personnel to be satisfied with the services and applications provided, but, at the same time, they would expect a return on investment (ROI) with regard to the established network. Measuring ROI can be done in a variety of ways and is largely dependent on the industry market within which the organisation operates.
"The success or failure of network connectivity solution projects can be attributed to a number of factors, and it is essential to understand the total needs requirement from the outset. These requirements would include available connectivity carrier/bandwidth infrastructure, services which would be provided over the network and applications which would generate traffic over the infrastructure.
"The user experience, relating to responsiveness, guaranteed quality of service and predictability of applications, is dictated by a number of features provided by the network and is very dependent on product features and functions, bandwidth availability and correct configuration/setup of the network components. Obviously the management of these network infrastructures, delivering a platform which can plan, deploy, provision and bill, is essential to the success of most connectivity projects," concludes Woolley.
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