The Death Of Outsourcing

What does 2014 bring for the security industry? Calum MacLeod, VP of EMEA at Lieberman Software Corporation  shares his opinions:

CIOs will face extinction

Today, private computer systems, built and operated by individual companies, are being supplanted by services provided over the Internet. Computing is turning into a utility, and once again the economic equations that determine the way we work and live are being rewritten.

This is going to have an impact on the CIO’s job because as more and more organisations rely on service providers to manage their IT, there is going to be less of a need for internal IT departments, and CIOs.

I imagine CIOs will try and stave off the threats, using their powerbase, to block any and every attempt by lesser mortals to improve the way the business worked. After all who else but the CIO and his henchmen, the CSO, CTO, and Audit know anything about IT?

Security assets will move to the cloud

A key trend for 2014 will be organisations moving their security assets into the cloud. This will largely be driven by a lack of staff or skills, to reduce costs or to comply with evolving security regulations quickly.

The move will provide organisations with a more robust and sophisticated security posture and it will also create new opportunities for technology and security vendors in the cloud, however those without cloud capabilities must start acting fast.

The death of outsourcing

While this has been on the horizon for some time now, I believe 2014 will be the year when we really start to see the number of outsourcing deals steadily start to decline. Organisations have started to recognise that instead of saving organizations money, outsourcing often actually ends up costing more, and that trust in the quality of work is being jeopardised.

When used effectively, IT is a strategic tool for successful companies. In the future, the winners will be the organisations that use technology to create differentiation that’s difficult for competitors to match. The decision to outsource should not be taken lightly and for organizations that are going to do so, they must select their IT outsourced partner on an appropriate set of criteria – not just cost, but resiliency, transparency, data security and ultimately trust.