Reflections – On-site vs. Hosted IT Platform Design

Introduction

Here in this article I will share some of my observations of topics which have to be considered before making a decision about the future IT Platform design.

Like anything else within IT then there is no simple answer to whether an On-site Server Center, a Hosted Server Center or a Hybrid design for your IT Platform are to be preferred. The only thing for sure is that the majority of scenarios in the business case are identical when looking at the end-user experience and the availability. In this article I will pretend that licensing is not an issue.

It is my intention in this article to highlight some of the issues I have seen being neglected in the Business Case and/ or by the management team. The consequences have been overspent budgets and costly downtime during working hours – including a frustrated staff – as an “unforeseen” incident occurred.

There are more issues at stake

Whether you choose an On-site, a Hosted or Cloud based IT Platform there are some identical scenarios to address in the business case.

Most common ones are related to performance, i.e. end-user experience to response time and availability.

What happens if your primary application server crashes due to a bad hard drive or an upgrade fails?

In the scenario where you have a primary and a secondary environment with a fail-over configuration, scenarios related to the physical location and distance will have to be included in the evaluation.

Another important issue is related to the physical location of the data stored in the Hosted or Cloud design. Depending on the individual country there are some legal requirements to where data have to be stored and the time period they need to be accessible.

Finally, the organization maintaining the future IT platform needs to be addressed with respect to roles and competences. I recommend here to include a section related to training of existing staff as they have valuable knowledge to the business.

Business expectations

Business teams expects IT to be a service available 24/7 – including an availability to handle any requests (new/ replacement/ change/ etc.) in a rapid pace. The requests of today includes tools for sharing information, collaboration, analysis and availability.

The business teams have increased the use of mobile devices in their daily operations. Introducing tablets and smartphones forces a different approach to the IT design. Since it became common to allow the employees to use their own devices we have a new dimension within the IT Platform design that requires a more thorough approach in terms of security scenarios.

The customers want the availability of self-service, i.e. access to product documentation and/ or ordering. This service requires full attention to the security, i.e. classification of data, threats and so forth.

Virtual design

The Virtual design gave the IT department the opportunity to a more flexible use of the hardware components. The only limitation here are related to sizing and performance.

Such flexibility requires extra resources in order to keep track of versions, clean up, etc. – activities which often happens to be underestimated.

Cloud design

Introducing the services offered by the Cloud design have moved the physical engine room away from the inhouse IT team to a contractor. This has been seen as an advantage related to service, cost and capacity – you “only” pay for what you actually are using as the technical support are handled by the contractor.

Changing the setup to a Cloud based design works very fine if the business are using a “simple” design, i.e. few applications, a few interfaces to external systems and only doing business within the region.

The challenges come when the business expects a dynamic handling of their IT requirements. Using the Cloud design requires a “Contract Control Center” for managing change requests as there will be a financial impact no matter how small the change will be.

The simple technical difference between On-site and Hosted Cloud design

In short the only technical difference is the available hardware and the awareness to cost.

The internal IT department are limited to what has been approved previously, where a contractor due to their business strategy will have enough spare capacity available for expansion.

Having the IT platform on-site there was a tendency within the organization to forget that any change has a financial impact. Using a contractor generates an awareness of that there are a cost connected to a change request – if communicated.

I recommend implementing a Change Request process as this also incorporates the financial impact to the budgets when implemented.

The issues we forget to address

Have you ever thought of the power supply configuration?

One test I have never seen being executed is a simulation of a human error like pull out the power cable in the server and then plug it in again or test the emergency button next to the door in the server room and then in less than 10 seconds turn on the power again. British Airways had an incident in April 2017 with some financial impact due to a human error scenario nobody paid attention to.

The IT platform design is complicated

As I mentioned in my first article at LinkedIn (or in an earlier post here) then I am convinced the companies will need to catch up on having the full overview of the match between the Business Strategy, Business Processes, Data Processes and Legal requirements.

I can recommend using the models mentioned in my third article at LinkedIn (or in an earlier post here) with an open mind – I do believe in it is better to use a reference model with identified gaps than no reference model at all.

I addressed in my second article at LinkedIn (or in an earlier post here) why securing the match between the Business Strategy, Business Processes, Data Processes and Legal requirements are critical to the business.

Next in line

With reference to the “Top of the Iceberg” analogy then I just continued to scratch the surface of the complexity a company will have to deal with when working with their IT platform.

In my next article I will share some reflections related to the strategy of “One vendor” vs “Multiple vendors” for the IT Platform.

This article was published initially on LinkedIn on 7 September 2017. I have made some adjustments to the content in this version.

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