Infrastructure management

A panel discussion on enterprise infrastructure management saw a group of seasoned IT heavyweights discuss real-life infrastructure management issues faced by CIOs in a typical work scenario.

Sachdev Ramakrishna, Chief Information Officer, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories said:

I face the same infrastructure management challenges in my company that any other CIO faces. The challenges over the years have increased due to the increased complexity of enterprise networks. Since our economy is now global, the time-to-market is an issue, and users have become more impatient. Aspects like access to data, network uptime, and security have become very important.

The Panelists

Sachdev Ramakrishna, Chief Information Officer, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd.

Vijay Mahajan, Head IT Infrastructure & Facilities Management, Corporate IT, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd

P. Rambabu, General Manager-IT, Asian Paints (India) Limited

S. R. Balasubramanian, Vice-President, Information Technology, HDFC Bank

Dennis Thomas, Head-IT, 3 Global Services Pvt. Ltd.

Moderator

Val Souza, Editor, Express Computer

Vijay Mahajan, Head IT Infrastructure & Facilities Management, Corporate IT, Mahindra & Mahindra said:

Since our company carries out a lot of R&D activities, it is critical that we protect the information. We have thus decided to get a BS7799 certification. Although we have put all our systems and processes in place, the challenge for the IT team is to manage the culture change. It is important to educate the user.

P. Rambabu, General Manager-IT, Asian Paints (India) said:

It's important for the CIO to be absolutely sure that the company should outsource infrastructure management functions. He/she should not be swayed by hard sell from vendors regarding new technology concepts. It's also necessary to plan jobs and responsibilities for your existing workforce when you have outsourced infrastructure management functions.

S. R. Balasubramanian, Vice-President, Information Technology HDFC Bank said:

We have found a lot of benefit in outsourcing. We outsource infrastructure management functions like helpdesk management, network management, mail management, server management, LAN and WAN desktop management, anti-virus management, and even vendor management. The job of managing the various vendor SLAs has also been given to an outsourcing partner.

Dennis Thomas, Head-IT,
3 Global Services Pvt. Ltd makes a point in his presentation at the panel discussion.

P. Rambabu, General Manager-IT of Asian Paints (India) LImited discusses critical issues regarding outsourcing infrastructure management functions

Conclusion

The panel agreed that good infrastructure management was extremely important for companies in current business conditions. CIOs discussed the usefulness of outsourcing infrastructure management functions and some of the benefits actually faced by them. The panel also requested a certain amount of caution when planning to outsource.