It’s difficult to establish a niche within the External Service Provider (ESP) industry with competition on the rise among ESPs. Having an excellent plan and a keen sense of market needs and what the competition is doing is essential for a good data center company to have a chance.
Within this tight market you have competitor specialties that range from data center outsourcing to enterprise application outsourcing. Listed below are a few others.
Manufacturers of traditional equipment such as IBM and HP
Software development companies such as Oracle and Microsoft
System integrators such as CSC, SAIC, and Northrop Grumman
Dotcoms such as Google and Amazon
Telecommunications firms such as AT&T and Verizon
Many customers that are in the market for an ESP have mixed feelings towards larger ESP companies. Although they feel the large ESP companies may have well established practices and could provide better service; they don’t feel as though they will receive the needed support because of there company size. In comparison with some of the competition listed above there are some innovative data management companies who have found their niche in tailoring to the needs of the customer. They have not ignored the little guy, yet they have unique accommodations to compete with larger data management companies.
An emerging development in the ITO landscape is the practice of multi-sourcing or using several ESPs simultaneously. Rather than settle for the one size-fit-all approach offered by most large vendors, customers that multi-source are able to choose any combination of services or ESPs that best suit their needs. “Megadeals” are often the most common option of integrated outsourcing solutions; however, many organizations are now opting to sign a series of smaller deals with multiple ESPs. While his approach requires more management oversight by the customer, it offers the benefit of enlisting the services of “best-of-breed” ESPs.
Customers looking to effectively use resources may benefit from a large array of ESPs to choose from. A growing number of organizations are choosing out-tasking, or selectively outsourcing specific functions, over a pure outsourcing model. Outsourcing would permit data center management to perform all tasks, with full operational responsibility and ownership of the assets. Alternatively out-tasking allows an innovative data management center to perform partial infrastructure management functions, while the customer retains overall control and ownership of their equipment and applications.
The growing assortment of selective out-tasking services means today’s buyers can evaluate the business benefits of various outsourcing alternatives. This no longer becomes an “either/or” proposal, for the client to realize meaningful returns. The criteria for selection will include availability of personnel, current data center infrastructure and efficiency, investment and future upgrade requirements.
Some obvious differences maybe cost, unique service offerings, and advanced technology. With the market competition as tough as it is, an innovative data management company has to stand out from the crowd. If a company is able to offer all three they will probably be quite competitive with the competition.
A few more items in addition to the aforementioned list of benefits could be: An innovative data management company that could offer proactive technology upgrades, a feature-rich infrastructure, and flexibility to execute changes such as upgrading bandwidth, adding new connections, and deploying new hardware in a fraction of the time it takes the competition to do so. How would this company stack up against the competition?
