[May 14, 2015]

New Ponemon Institute Research Cites Complexity, Cost, and Speed-to-Deployment as Drivers of IT Outsourcing

Cervalis today announced the release of survey results identifying the current and future role of outsourcing in companies' management of their IT infrastructure. The survey, developed and conducted by the Ponemon Institute LLC and sponsored by Cervalis, found that complexity and cost were driving a move towards outsourcing of data center operations. Sixty-nine percent of respondents agree that outsourcing to a third party could become an important part of their overall IT strategy.

Technology and data are the backbone of business. The decision to pass their management to a service provider is critical, and requires high levels of trust. In this era of major data breaches, companies expect any partner to whom they trust their data to mirror their security policies and procedures.

The survey of more than 600 IT and IT security professionals discovered that many say IT outsourcing is becoming an important part of their strategies, and they are expecting to significantly increase the outsourcing of their business applications. (See the Figure 1 below.)

Key Findings

• Sixty-nine percent of respondents consider managing their companies' data center operations extremely painful
• Seventy-seven percent of respondents believe outsourcing cloud services lowers IT operating costs
• Among the main reasons for outsourcing certain IT services were lack of in-house expertise and speed to deploy systems
• Maintaining control of over sensitive data is favored

Larry Ponemon, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder, Ponemon Institute (News - Alert) "Trusting a third party with sensitive and confidential information is an important decision and requires assurances that proper procedures and safeguards are in place to protect critical information assets," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. "Making the business case for IT outsourcing requires more than simply calculating the cost savings. To gain their trust and confidence, companies need to know that sensitive and confidential information in the possession of a third party is protected to a standard that mirrors their own practices and expectations."

Bob Crespi, VP Operations, CIO, Cervalis "IT in general, and data center operations in particular, is becoming increasingly difficult to manage in-house for multiple reasons. Skills, costs, advances in software and hardware, plus pressure to align with and support disparate business units equally are making the case for finding support outside the organization."

About the Research

The White Paper (News - Alert), titled "The Business Case for IT Outsourcing," is based upon a Ponemon Institute designed and distributed survey of 642 IT and IT security practitioners at U.S. companies. To ensure a knowledgeable and quality response, only IT practitioners involved in managing IT operations participated.

About Cervalis

Cervalis is a premier provider of IT infrastructure and managed services solutions including colocation, cloud and managed hosting, business continuity/disaster recovery, and hybrid IT. Our skilled professionals, world-class data centers and outstanding customer support provide clients with secure, highly available IT environments that ensure business resilience. Our fully redundant, fault-tolerant facilities are located around the New York tri-state area. Cervalis maintains SSAE16 Type 2 SOC 1 & SOC 2 and PCI (News - Alert) DSS compliance as well as Safe Harbor Certification. Our network security standards and data storage solutions help clients meet rigorous HIPPA requirements.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20150514005069/en/

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