“For many years, organizations have talked about their applications using their data running on their infrastructure in their data center supported by their information technology staff and used by their employees and medical staff.
“Their” encompassed management oversight of the direction and use of IT assets, control over organizational capital and operating investments in the assets, ownership of the assets, and the assets being located on-site.
But the reality of “their” has been changing.
Minicomputers, followed by personal computers, led to departments and individuals engaging in IT acquisitions and use that were barely or not at all controlled by the organization. Meanwhile, some provider organizations have been running applications on hardware located off-site through a shared service arrangement. More recently, software as a service and cloud computing enable organizations to function using someone else’s applications and infrastructure.
Outsourcing provides the organization with the ability to leverage someone else’s IT staff.”
Article
John Glaser, H&HN, 11 January 2010
