21 Oct 2008

Hosted functions 'save firms money'

Companies looking to cut their IT spending in a bid to combat the impact of the economic downturn have been advised to consider outsourcing and remotely-hosted services.

The advice came from Pramila Raj of TMCnet, who explained that small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly likely to be hit by the economic slowdown, but they are also the ones best positioned to benefit from remote services.

"Outsourcing and virtualising IT functions is the best way to save data in a cost-effective manner while also reducing overhead," she said.

One area where big savings can be made is remote online data backup.

The total cost of hardware, tapes and storage can be sizeable, Ms Raj said, but storing data off site can avoid much of that spending and free up more time for IT professionals to devote to other duties.

David Hobson of Global Secure Systems recently suggested that firms utilising cloud computing should take advantage of remote data backup services.