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Managing Outsourcing Contracts for System Administration

Managing Outsourcing Contracts for System Administration. Frédéric Hemmer CERN. 9000. 14000. 8000. 12000. 7000. 10000. 6000. Disk Storage - GigaBytes. 5000. 8000. CPU Capacity - CERN Units. 4000. 6000. 3000. 4000. 2000. 1000. 2000. 1997 (est.). 1996. 1988. 1989. 1990.

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Managing Outsourcing Contracts for System Administration

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  1. Managing Outsourcing Contracts for System Administration Frédéric Hemmer CERN Frédéric Hemmer

  2. 9000 14000 8000 12000 7000 10000 6000 Disk Storage - GigaBytes 5000 8000 CPU Capacity - CERN Units 4000 6000 3000 4000 2000 1000 2000 1997 (est.) 1996 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Year Capacity explosion • Physics Data Processing capacity • Benefits • Cheaper and more affordable computing cycles • Large data stores • Services dedicated to experiments • Large increase of computer nodes (20 in 1990, 300 now) • Over 1000 disks • î need for more manpower to perform the system administration Frédéric Hemmer

  3. Total Systems Administration 30 25 20 man-years per year 15 10 5 1997 (est.) 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1996 1995 Year Manpower evolution • Physics Data Processing manpower • system administration • user support • general administration • planning • etc. • Total decreased by 25 % • Sys. Admin. decreased by 40 % Frédéric Hemmer

  4. Outsourcing • Very wide definition • Total outsourcing of a service • Total transfer of ownership (equipment, infrastructure and staff) • Long term mega-deals • Temporary labour contracts • Selective sourcing (scope, size and duration) • different activities lead to different management attention • create constant competition • more flexibility to adapt to changes î We try to follow this approach Frédéric Hemmer

  5. “Best Practices in Information Technology Sourcing”M.C. Lacity, L.P. WilcocksExecutive Research Briefing, Oxford Institute of Information Management, Templeton College, University of Oxford1996 Frédéric Hemmer

  6. Our approach • Short term contracts • System administration only • CERN retains planning, HW purchase/maintenance, user support, choice of technology and architecture • SLA’s defining quality measures • At least two contracts (offset in time) î allows for regular retendering (competition) Frédéric Hemmer

  7. Our experience (1) • Initially tried to use temporary labour • Difficulty in finding experience candidates • CERN policy evolved to service contracts • Difficulty to express specifications of sys. admin. • Outsourced the task of writing the specifications • Long iterative process • Vendor and customer have different goals ! • Contract covering 28 HP and 27 DEC starting Jan. 96 Frédéric Hemmer

  8. Our experience (2) • Documents • Service Definition Document (Scope, communication and escalation procedures) • Service Level Agreement (responsibilities, tasks and performance metrics) • Specific Sys. Admin. documents for each system • System Administration tasks • installation, configuration changes, reactive and proactive problem management, development of service quality and performance measurements • Aggressive timescale • 2 months for sys. admin. guides, take over one month later Frédéric Hemmer

  9. Our experience (3) • May review • Objectives met • No degradation in service • Documentation very good • Improvements needed • Communication needs to be more formal • î Mastersoft’s OSM • Inventory, SLA, communication, reporting, quality measurement • System managers showed reluctance to give away “their” systems (lack of confidence, faster to fix it now). Not solved yet. • Decided to expand • 24/hours day • later expand to all DEC, HP, SUN and SGI equipment Frédéric Hemmer

  10. Potential Problem areas • Call Management System • Installed in Autumn, not used before March • No PC for our OPS manager • Lack of momentum in contract follow-up (increased responsibilities of the team leader, staffing problems) î no quality or performance measures • Coverage and end of 96 shutdown • Contract excluded this period • Period of intense activity as the computers are down î return of control to CERN staff • Contractor’s staff stability • î unable to test whether procedures and documentation are enough Frédéric Hemmer

  11. Conclusions • Globally positive • Procedures well documented • Very few problems/mistakes • Not too many delays • Clear cost attributable to system administration • Scaling up no longer limited by CERN staffing level • Improvement needed • More involvement from CERN needed in contract follow-up • The performance metrics need to be gathered and analysed î We hope to assess performance by the summer and be ready for tendering at the end of the year. Frédéric Hemmer

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