Service Providers: Plug-And-Play Dr Plug-And-Pray?

How much should be entrusted to the SSP?

MARK: I've heard a lot of stories--good and bad--about ASPs lately.

HAL: Tell me a story, Daddy.

MARK: Once upon a time there was a Silicon Valley CEO who moved his computer-support operations to an application service provider: an ASP. The ASP had made a presentation with lots of pretty PowerPoint slides, and lo! The CEO was sold.

HAL: I think I've heard this story before. But that was about a storage service provider--an SSP. Go on.

MARK: This one may have a different ending. Anyway, the ASP had multiple offices, each of which supported its own hardware. But they all used common software.

HAL: Meaning that they used the same software--not that the software was commonplace or shrink-wrapped?

MARK: Right. You're a bright child. To continue ... the ASP was expected to do backups, reduce downtime, and coordinate among the numerous vendors who were involved. After all, there's a server, several peripherals, networking connections, and storage media. But after six months, the CEO realized that his company was experiencing greater downtime than they'd suffered through when they were doing everything by themselves.

HAL: That doesn't sound like a testimonial for the ASP business.

MARK: It certainly was not. This CEO found he was paying more money and getting less value for it, than ever before.

HAL: If I were he, I'd have complained to the ASP.

MARK: He did that, of course, and here's the surprise: the ASP was very responsive. They really looked into the situation; they checked all the points of contention. And do you know what they found?

HAL: Tell me.

MARK: They couldn't really handle all of the vendors who were involved. They'd brought in so many players that it undermined their promise of 24/7 service.

HAL: Let me guess: everybody pointed a finger at someone else?

MARK: Very good! You can have an extra dessert tonight.

HAL: This is where legends merge with reality: the legend of the infallible service provider and the reality of the multi-vendor environment. I gather that the CEO terminated the ASP's contract and went back to running his own show.

MARK: That's it. The problem, I think, is that service-providers in general think they're utilities. You know--like the electric company, which can deliver power over long distances. You expect 24/7 service and there's a lot of redundancy in their systems. So it takes a really extraordinary accident to interrupt delivery.

HAL: I must admit that the ASP model--at least in theory--is sound. A few years from now, when problems like these have been worked out, we'll all be outsourcing a lot of what we now do in house.

MARK: It makes sense to farm out generic support functions and focus on one's core business. But CEOs and CIOs shouldn't fool themselves into thinking that the ASP model is as "plug-and-play" as the electric-utility model that the ASPs invoke when they're trying to sell their services.

HAL: That's certainly true of the storage-service provider model too. I'm sure that in the near future SSPs will have security apparatus and redundancies that'll make today's anxieties about their safety look silly. But the ASP model and the SSP model are still only theoretical constructs. Good in theory but still not perfect in practice. We're a couple of years away from being sure that our own data is safe in other people's hands.

MARK: Some of the storage service providers are a lap or two ahead of the game. They've developed two rapidly-maturing models for providing service: one is the situation in which all of the hardware and software are on the SSP's side of the firewall. In the other, the hardware and software remain at the client's site, and only the management is handled remotely.

HAL: You can imagine which of those models I favor: I'd want everything to be in one place: mine! An SSP can't always provide support 24/7 when there are so many vendors involved. Customers lose confidence in the ASP model too, when that happens. Why did you say those were "mature" models?

MARK: Because there's a choice. You can have it your own way--pick whatever makes sense for your business.

HAL: Let's ask our readers: Email me at [e-mail] if you'd prefer to have all your storage hardware and software in the SSP's hands.

MARK: Or email me at [e-mail] if you'd rather entrust only the management operation to the SSP.