The strengths of outsourcing-Outsourcing information technology (IT) for many has been the best-fit alternative to designing, building, equipping, staffing, and deploying an in-house solution.
While the above sounds good in a sales pitch, you may still feel "ill-at-ies", because the real world can be something different. Information systems present a peculiar puzzle with unique risks. As such, exposure to disasters can be much broader than natural disasters. Corrupted data, systems crashing, blackouts, theft, viruses, sabotage, definitely expand the definition of "disaster."
Compatibility with business objectives-Disaster recovery puts a significant strain on IT resources, particularly CSPs whose data centers house mission-critical applications and data for numerous customers. Before selecting a CSP, you should test its compatibility with your business model. Does the CSP understand not only your industry/profession, does it understand and can it respond swiftly to your business requirements?
Questions to ask about your CSP-Theoretically, CSPs are equipped to deal with disasters. They have the environmentals, physical plant, equipment, and staff to respond quickly should the need arise. To test their response-ability, you should seek and verify the answers to questions, such as:
These are just a few of the questions. With a proper service level agreement (SLA) in place, a customer and the CSP can develop a working relationship under any circumstance. Remember, to leverage an CSP's strengths, you must know its capacity to respond its response-ability.