MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS ABOUT OUTSOURCING

Transcription

1 THE VISTALOGIX GUIDE TO MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS ABOUT OUTSOURCING CONTINUUM HOSTED SOLUTIONS VISTALOGIX S HOSTED SOLUTIONS PROVIDE ONE OF THE SINGLE BEST COST SAVINGS WHILE ALLOWING ORGANIZATIONS TO FOCUS ON THEIR CORE BUSINESS.

2 I N T R O D U C T I O N In 2010, the State of Florida passed SB2020, requiring the outsourcing of all state systems. A B O U T T H E A U T H O R Brien Posey is an MCSE and won the Microsoft MVP award for the last few years. Brien has written over 3,000 technical articles and written or contributed material to 27 books. Prior to becoming a freelance author, Brien served as CIO for a chain of hospitals. He was also previously in charge of IT security for Fort Knox. In addition to his technical writing, Brien is the co-founder of Relevant Technologies. He also serves the IT community through his own Web site at A B O U T V I S T A L O G I X C O R P O R A T I O N Based in Florida, Vistalogix Corporation has been providing effective web-based technology solutions for small and mid-sized government and non-profit organizations since In 2008, Vistalogix was awarded a federal GSA IT Schedule 70 contract, which catapulted the company into the government arena. In the early days of the Internet boom the Vistalogix founders were creating web apps, such as the IT industry s Brainbuzz.com and the University of Florida s Gatorzone.com, to deliver rich, interactive content to millions of demanding users. This enterprise background has equipped Vistalogix with the unique ability to deliver cost-effective software that is well suited to the needs of smaller organizations, while incorporating the reliability and design standards found in much more costly enterprise solutions. Today, Vistalogix is responsible for reliably delivering web-based software and services to thousands of users. Organizations like First Advantage, UBS and Barclay s/lehman Brothers rely on Vistalogix s software to manage orders for background checks. The Broward Sheriff s Office and the State of Florida use Vistalogix to deliver a statewide program for the intervention and treatment of children involved in setting fires. Furthermore, Vistalogix delivers specially designed, reliable and compliant services to a number of government and nonprofit organizations. Vistalogix continues to seek out new ways of improving the effectiveness of these agencies by focusing on solutions that enhance their abilities in operations, management, collaboration, and fundraising. D O C U M E N T S U M M A R Y Given the ever increasing complexity of an or Microsoft Exchange Server system and the various -related federal regulations that have gone into effect, it has become far too expensive and risky for companies to host their own servers. As such, the outsourcing of the or Exchange Server system is quickly becoming an absolute necessity for any company that wants to free itself from the costs of deploying and maintaining such an environment. Outsourcing is also essential to eliminating costly down time and to shifting the burdens associated with complying with the various regulatory issues. Reasons for Choosing Hosted To Replace Internal Solutions This whitepaper describes the primary issues faced by organizations with in-house systems and how to look at outsourcing as the best cost-saving, compliant alternative. Page 2 Copyright Vistalogix Corporation All Rights Reserved

3 R E D U C I N G C O S T S Each server in an organization s system comes with an initial hardware acquisition cost and the cost of the Windows and server licenses paid to Microsoft and other vendors. There may also be costs related to antivirus software, anti-spam software, and user connection licenses. Additional costs come in the form of spare parts, overtime for administrative staff to ensure 24x7x365 reliability, and other maintenance related expenses. In fact, the long term costs associated with server maintenance usually far outweigh the initial acquisition costs over the life of the server. Outsourcing your mailboxes to an hosting company allows you to avoid the initial startup costs of deploying an server environment and reduces the ongoing costs. The reason is because hosting providers typically divide server resources among multiple clients. This means that several companies share the expense of the hardware and software, as well as, monitoring and maintenance costs, rather than your company having to cover the entire cost. R E L I A B I L I T Y & D I S A S T E R P R E P A R A T I O N Although the primary benefit to outsourcing your hosting is often cost, there are other benefits. One benefit is reliability. Hosting companies typically use server clusters and other forms of redundant hardware to ensure that the hosted Exchange deployment is nearly always available. This availability is typically guaranteed in writing in the form of a service level agreement. Another way hosting companies are more reliable than in-house systems is that hosting companies are usually better equipped to recover from a disaster. Most companies back up their servers but few companies have the human and hardware resources to thoroughly test their backups on a regular basis. Most hosting companies not only test their backups, they guarantee how quickly data can be restored should one of your users accidentally delete something. Board: Key Points Limit liability Take advantage of economies of scale Great non-personnel means of cutting costs Executives: Allows reallocation of resources and personnel Reduce annual budget fluctuations Cost In-House Hosted Average cost per user per year over six years $86.79 $32.07 Average savings per user per year over six years $54.72 % savings provided by hosting 60.6% % of total on-premise cost represented by labor 66.5% A C T U A L C O S T C O M P A R I S O N In 2009, Osterman Research produced a report on using hosting to reduce the costs of . In it they published the results of several studies of actual organizations that had accomplished significant cost savings by outsourcing their . One such scenario is presented below. This scenario is based on the following criteria: Reduce required skill set and training costs Simplify disaster recovery IT Managers: Allows reallocation of resources and personnel Simplify license management 500 users in Year 1 with user base growing at 5% per year Organization purchases single appliances with no backup/disaster recovery capability Provides only 8x5 support On-premises system is a market-leading, low-cost provider of appliances Three-year equipment refresh cycle Downtime is not factored into this analysis w w w. v i s t a l o g i x. c o m / e m a i l Page 3

4 R E D U C I N G C O M P L E X I T Y There is a certain amount of technical complexity associated with any system. Let s examine Microsoft Exchange Server, since it is the most widely deployed server platform. M O R E C O M P L E X I T Y = M O R E $ $ $ Microsoft Exchange Server has a reputation for being one of the most complex products that Microsoft has ever created. In smaller organizations, it is possible to reduce some of this complexity by deploying the entire Exchange Server system on a single server. Even so, having a single server deployment is extremely risky from a security and reliability standpoint. Single server deployments are also prone to performance problems, high potential for failure, and expandability issues. Figure 1: A proper Exchange Server system is fairly complex, requiring many servers As complicated as this diagram appears, it actually represents a fairly simple Exchange Server system. In fact, the diagram does not provide for any server redundancy that would keep the organization functioning should a server failure occur. The diagram also assumes that the organization has few enough end users that all of the user s mailboxes fit on a single mail server. The point is, even a simple Exchange Server system is complicated and with that complexity comes added cost. The first cost you are likely to encounter is training your administrative staff to design, deploy, and maintain an effective Exchange Server environment. As expensive and time consuming as the training is, it quickly becomes obsolete. Microsoft released Exchange Server 2007 before the product was actually complete. As such, the first service pack includes many features that do not currently exist. The service pack also includes a GUI interface to many features that are currently only configurable via the command line. When this service pack is released, administrators will need updated training so that they know how to deal with the new features and management utilities. Page 4 Copyright Vistalogix Corporation All Rights Reserved

5 R E D U C I N G C O M P L E X I T Y Another reason why increased complexity leads to increased costs is because of the number of servers required to host Exchange Server 2007 in a secure and reliable manner. The diagram shown in Figure 1 represents an Exchange deployment that is secure but not reliable. More servers are needed to make this deployment more reliable, yet several Exchange Servers are already being used. D O W N T I M E : T H E P H A N T O M C O S T Although not always a tangible cost, downtime is usually very expensive. Downtime has a direct impact on employee productivity and fixing the problem requires the administrative staff to temporarily neglect other tasks and focus on fixing the problem. Additionally, there may be a direct loss of revenue because users are unable to receive time-sensitive messages. The repair may also incur more tangible costs, such as server parts or service calls. The most serious aspect of an server failure is the potential for data loss. Depending on the type of failure, the chances of recovering server data are directly related to your IT staff s skills and to their diligence in backing up the server and routinely testing the backups. As you can see, downtime can be very expensive for a number of reasons. It is important to remember that outsourcing your mail server does not automatically eliminate the potential for downtime or data loss. Board: Key Points Help organization focus on core business Isolate business from personal Executives: Improve productivity by reducing downtime Traffic Blocked Domains Received Sent Spam Viruses DHA xxxxxxxxxx.com 185,185 36, ,689 1,041 71,937 Figure 2: Actual report of Spam, viruses and attacks blocked for a client. A D D I T I O N A L F E A T U R E S ( O R H E A D A C H E S? ) So far, we ve discussed basic functionality. However, in today s environment, organizations are faced with ever-increasing needs to improve productivity and satisfy compliance requirements. Smartphones Everyone loves their iphone/blackberry/droid! Smartphones have been the biggest boon to productivity in the last decade. However, deploying and maintaining the various components, such as Blackberry Enterprise Server or Microsoft ActiveSync, that allow these devices to deliver their productivity benefits require an added level of expertise and resources. Of course, these translate into additional costs. Risk mitigation by ensuring compliance More workforce mobility & flexibility IT Managers: Reduces workload & shifts responsibility Simplify user & security management More resources to call on when problem solving Compliance One final reason why it may be prudent to outsource your solution is that many organizations are subject to various federal regulations regarding the security, management, and retention of . Complying with these regulations is as tedious as it is expensive. Furthermore, executives and IT professionals may be subject to criminal penalties, including prison time, for non-compliance. Depending on the specific regulations that apply to your organization, you may be able to shift some of the compliance burden and reduce cost by outsourcing your . Anti-Virus/Spam Controlling the number of viruses and Spam s that assault an system on a daily basis is a daunting task by itself. Keeping up with this burden requires not only a unique skill set and attention to detail, but an appropriate set of tools. Effective server security requires dedicated hardware and software, as well as time spent monitoring and updating virus and Spam signatures databases and threat updates. Add to that the cost of additional training to keep IT staff up to date. w w w. v i s t a l o g i x. c o m / e m a i l Page 5

6 C H O O S I N G A P R O V I D E R If you are considering outsourcing your solution to an hosting company, then it is extremely important that you to ask certain questions before signing the contract. Some hosting companies may initially appear to be a bargain (price isn t everything) but lack reliability and support. Some hosting companies have been known to lack a redundant infrastructure, not have robust backups, tack on various extra fees for service, or use unscrupulous tactics to prevent customers from canceling their contracts. As a result, it is important to know the right questions to ask. One of the most important questions to ask is whether or not the hosting company provides a managed hosting solution. In a managed hosting environment, the hosting company takes care of all of the server maintenance. They back up the data, apply security patches, handle any other maintenance or support issues that may arise. Many non-managed hosts simply allow you to rent a server in their datacenter with the management and maintenance of that server still left up to you. And if you wind up getting stuck doing your own maintenance and support, you ve defeated the purpose of outsourcing your mail system in the first place. Other providers simply deliver Of course this is only one of several important issues to consider when choosing a hosting company. The sections below explain what other questions you should ask when shopping for an server hosting company and why the answers are important. H O W I S M Y D A T A B E I N G P R O T E C T E D? Any reputable hosting company should take the appropriate measures to make sure that their servers are secure. Even so, it s worth asking the hosting company you are considering what steps they take to secure their servers. Don t be surprised if the hosting company refuses to answer this question. Many hosting companies are reluctant to provide specific information about their security measures. Even if you can t get information about the company s security standards, it is important to ask the company about their spam and virus protection policy. Most, but not all, hosting companies provide a spam filtering and virus protection solution. In this subject, there are usually two options: standard solution (offers basic performance) or premium solution (guarantees the service and the filtering). hosting companies spam filtering policies vary. Some companies attempt to filter the most obvious spam, while others leave spam control to the end users out of fear of accidentally filtering legitimate messages. If the hosting company filters spam, then it is important that they provide a method for you to retrieve messages that were accidently filtered out or to allow you to adjust the filtering settings. D A T A R E C O V E R Y P O L I C Y From time to time, a user is probably going to accidentally delete a message that they really need. If you are hosting your own Exchange Server, you can recover messages according to your own data retention policies. When your mailboxes are being outsourced, you can look to the hosting company for data recovery. It is very important that you find out the hosting company s recovery policy. Specifically, how quickly data can be recovered and whether or not there is a fee for the recovery. If you have not signed a contract that specifically guarantees long term data archiving, find out how long the backups are retained. This is an important consideration if you need to restore something that was deleted a month ago but your hosting service only retains backups for two weeks. That data might be lost forever. W H A T A R E T H E C O S T S? If your primary motivation behind outsourcing your Exchange Server is to reduce cost, the first question you will likely ask is how much the service costs. Most hosting companies base the price on the number of seats or mailboxes being hosted. For example, a hosting company might charge you $15 per mailbox per month. Although this pricing structure seems simple, it is important to remember that many hosting companies use a sliding price scale. For example, when you purchase additional mailboxes you might qualify for a volume discount. At the same time, some companies actually charge more per mailbox as the number of hosted mailboxes increases to cover the additional consumption of their server resources. It is important to find out upfront what happens to the price as the number of hosted mailboxes changes. Page 6 Copyright Vistalogix Corporation All Rights Reserved

7 C H O O S I N G A P R O V I D E R S T O R A G E Q U O T A S Most hosting contracts stipulate a maximum size for a user s mailbox. Find out what happens if users end up outgrowing the allotted space. Some hosting companies implement a quota preventing the maximum mailbox size from being exceeded. That means mailbox functionality may be disabled when it hits capacity making it impossible to send and/or receive messages. Other hosting companies may even charge you a fee for exceeding the allotted disk space. In all likelihood, at least a few users will eventually need additional disk space. Ask upfront how this need will be met. Key Points D O I G E T M Y D A T A B A C K? Aside from pricing, the single most important question to ask an hosting company is what happens to your data if you cancel the service. Although not a common practice, some hosting contracts stipulate that your data becomes the hosting company s property. That means if you cancel your hosting contract, the hosting company is free to delete your data. They are under no obligation to give you any future access to the data. It is therefore essential to confirm that you retain ownership of your data and that the hosting company will assist you in migrating the data to your servers or to another hosting company s servers should the need ever arise. H O W M A N Y T I M E S H A V E Y O U B E E N D O W N? When considering transition to a hosted environment, it is natural to focus your attention on the cost of the service in comparison with the cost of hosting your own servers. An equally important consideration is downtime. Hosting companies can have server failures just like anyone else. It is therefore critical to insist that the hosting company provide you with a service level agreement. W H A T I S A S E R V I C E L E V E L A G R E E M E N T? A Service Level Agreement is a contractual obligation for the hosting company to provide a certain level of reliability. A higher percentage means more reliable service. Generally, you should accept a service level agreement of no less than 99.9% availability; however, some hosting companies are able to provide 99.99% or even 100% availability. In addition to asking about the service level agreement, it is also important to ask about your recourse. What happens if the hosting company s service isn t as reliable as they claim? Most reputable hosting companies will offer you either a full or a partial refund for any time that the hosting service was unavailable. Be sure to read the fine print. In some cases, your service may have to be down for a full day before you are eligible for any type of compensation. Board: Guaranteed level of service Establish necessary policies Aids succession planning of management. Executives: Watch out for basic services without security, archiving, etc. Maintain control of all data Obtain a service level guarantee Establish all fees upfront IT Managers: A D D I T I O N A L F E E S Just as you need to be familiar with the hosting company s pricing structure, it is also important to ask about any additional fees that the hosting company may charge. Some hosting companies have been known to charge setup fees or an annual maintenance fee. It is also fairly common for hosting companies to charge a fee for restoring deleted mailboxes or messages. Define who controls your data Know security, backup & management policies Know the migration process T H E M I G R A T I O N P R O C E S S Making the transition to a hosted mail server isn t a big deal if you are a startup company with no data to migrate. If you currently host your own Exchange Server environment, you will need to know the process of migrating your existing data to the hosting company s servers. Most reputable hosting companies will assist you with the migration process. It is also worth asking how long the transition process takes, what items (calendar, tasks, notes, public folders) are migrated, and whether or not is accessible during the transition. w w w. v i s t a l o g i x. c o m / e m a i l Page 7

8 CONTINUUM HOSTING DETAILS O P T I O N S F O R Y O U R N E E D S & B U D G E T Regardless of the size of your organization, or how simple or complicated your needs, Vistalogix has an solution to fit both your needs and budget: Enterprise Our standard offering provides the most-used features of Microsoft Exchange at a fraction of the cost. Get fully encrypted, enterprise-class , anti-virus/spam, smartphone sync, webmail, and archiving your organization can rely on. Hosted Exchange For organizations needing the advanced desktop integration and collaboration features of Microsoft Exchange, we offer all of the benefits, without the expense and headaches of managing it in-house. E N T E R P R I S E - G R A D E S E C U R I T Y Datacenter staffed by specialized security engineers. Send s between organization staff securely, using SSL encrypted connectivity. Guarantee compliance using Dept. of Defense approved authentication and industry-leading security practices. E A S Y - T O - U S E A R C H I V I N G Guarantee Sunshine Law and FRCP compliance with automatic, searchable archiving. M U L T I - L A Y E R A N T I - V I R U S / S P A M All in-bound messages pass through several stages of scanning at the gateway, before they ever reach users mailboxes. Not only are the message headers and body checked, but also any attachments. Virus definitions are updated hourly, as opposed to most desktop and server anti-virus programs which check only once per day. Cloudmark & Message Sniffer All is scanned by Cloudmark s industry leading spam detection software, as well as Message Sniffer from ARM Research Labs. Cloudmark uses Advanced Message Fingerprinting to detect spam, phishing, and viruses. Message Sniffer relies on pattern recognition and machine learning technology to detect spam and malware. S M A R T P H O N E M O B I L I T Y Synchronize all of your , contacts, calendars, and tasks securely, without coming into the office! Microsoft ActiveSync & Blackberry Enterprise Server ensure reliable over-the-air sync with iphone, Blackberry and new Droid devices. F A S T, E A S Y D E P L O Y M E N T N O N - T E C H N I C A L M A N A G E M E N T Forget installing, configuring and learning Microsoft Exchange Management Console! Adding users, creating public folders, managing Spam filtering, and all other or Exchange tasks are easily performed through a simple web-based control panel that is accessible from anywhere. New accounts can be setup in minutes using web-based tools. Migrations can be done in days, rather than weeks or months using online migration tools. Dedicated migration staff available to assist when needed. O T H E R B E N E F I T S SAS 70 certified datacenters. Fully redundant, cloud-based infrastructure. Variety of additional web-based IT resources specifically designed for government and nonprofit organizations. C O N T A C T V I S T A L O G I X sales@vistalogix.com (800) Roosevelt Blvd. #240 St. Petersburg, FL w w w. v i s t a l o g i x. c o m / e m a i l