Before making a decision whether to outsource your data centre you need to carefully look at your business processes, activities and ask yourself questions on your outsourcing needs in two dimensions. First, the extent to which the outsourcing process will help you differentiate us in the market. Second, the extent to which the outsourcing process, is mission-critical to your organisation.

If the task performed at the data centre is differentiating and mission critical, you need to outsource so that you can perform better than your competitors. If the process is mission-critical but not differentiating, you would probably be better off streamlining and simplifying the process in-house to improve to performance and monetise the benefits.

Taking a different perspective whether you should outsource your data centre do you rely on data center services to differentiate your organisation in the marketplace? Do you have a sales force that acquires new customers by telling them how great your IT department for managing the data centre? Probably not.

However, while your data centre services may not differentiate you in the market, they are most likely mission critical. This means you need to deliver data centre services in a way of parity. While you not generate value by a better performing data centre than anyone else, you hurt the business if the performance is not up to the standard.

How does such a thought process help you decide about your data centre outsourcing needs? As data centre management is not an activity that differentiates your organisation, you need to assess the gaps you have in the data centre services you provide. If you have gaps, you need to fill them quickly.

How can these gaps be filled quickly? One way is to outsource the process. However, the outsourcing process should ensure that the provider is not someone who will perform such a mission-critical activity poorly.

This kind of thought process should help you make a decision on your outsourcing needs. The decision depends on the gaps you have in your data center services and what the best practices are in the market. A cost gap may need to be filled. Or you might need to fill a service-level gap or a technology gap.

If you have such gaps, outsourcing could be the best way overcome the problem. Your data center outsourcing process will depend on the outsourced services available and how they compare with your in-house options.

Meeting your outsourcing needs requires a thought process and the one explained here is a guide that you can easily follow.