08 Dec 2008

Service monitoring advice for firms

Firms can request service level agreements with their hosted IT vendors to ensure they are receiving the best possible value on their investment, an expert has suggested.

Despite the rise of cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, some companies develop a "fear of performance" after outsourcing part of their operations to an external party, commented Hadrian James, technology manager at Compuware.

On-site IT departments are easy to monitor for consistency and some businesses want to measure the standards of connectivity they receive through cloud servers, Mr James noted.

However, monitoring a vendor's performance would still be much less work for a company compared to managing an IT infrastructure themselves, he said.

"All you are really doing is listening to the traffic going past, so you have a monitor, its almost like a meter no more complicated than your gas meter or your electricity meter," Mr James said.

According to research by Gartner, businesses believe SaaS technology is cost effective, easy to use and offers added benefits in terms of its speed of deployment.