Monday, July 26, 2010

Outsourcing statistics in Higher Education

I got a link (https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/itana/EA+in+Higher+Ed+Surveys) which is a survey about Enterprise Architecture but I thought I would extract two questions about Outsourcing and Cloud Computing. In total there were 93 Higher Education institutions that answered the survey.  

12: Do you outsource activities like development, hosting of services etc.?
  • Significant Outsourcing - 4,3% (4)
  • Some Outsourcing - 32,6% (30)
  • Little Outsourcing - 57,6% (53)
  • No Outsourcing - 5,4% (5)
13: What extent are you actively pursuing "Cloud Computing" or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions?
  • We have implemented Cloud Computing or SaaS solutions - 24,2% (22)
  • We are moving to implement Cloud Computing or SaaS solutions now - 23,1% (21)
  • Cloud Computing or SaaS solutions are on our strategic plan but we haven't begun implementation - 25,3% (23)
  • We are watching and waiting to see what becomes of Cloud Computing and SaaS - 27,5% (25)
  • We are not considering Cloud Computing or SaaS - 0% (0) 
So, based on these numbers, and the hope they are fairly representative (which they might be but it is hard to tell for sure) outsourcing in general within the High Ed community is practiced, almost everyone is doing something. However most are doing little or some.

These numbers differ significantly from Cloud Computing where around 50% has moved or are moving to a cloud service like Google Apps or Microsoft Live@Edu. The most interesting difference is that every institution that answered the question is considering Cloud Computing.

This seem to indicate the obvious shift in the outsourcing market where Cloud Computing is preferred over traditional hosting services. My best guess this trend will strengthen and within a few years most if not all vendors will provide a Cloud Computing option for their software solution.

A question: How will this effect open source solutions? Is there need for options where buyers can by an Open Source solution as a Cloud Computing service? This might be something that National Research and Education Network (NRENs - SUNET in Sweden) providers can/should provide.

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