Post image for Advantages of Combining Training with Outsourcing

Outsourcing allows you to create a solution to a specific problem quickly. Many of the solutions that you may want to deploy in your organization require skills that take years to develop. Outsourcing helps you leverage the time factor. For example, when a company decides that the high cost of licenses for a mail server need to be replaced with an open source solution, it is not an easy process to simply assign a Windows admin who is used to a graphical interface to build a Linux server from the command line. In addition, it is difficult to determine all of the intricate details on how to construct a mail server. There is no doubt that the process of building a mail server can provide a lot of skill set development, but often companies waste thousands in development when they could have outsourced the project and purchased training for a low cost.

Here is an example to use as a comparison demonstrating the advantages of training and outsourcing at the same time.

Company A:
Company A decides to build a Nagios server to monitor their internal servers, printers, routers and switches. The company assigns a Windows admin the responsibility and gives them 3 months to get it up and working. The company has 25 internal servers both Windows and Linux, 10 laser printers and 8 switches and routers, a relatively small number. The first problem the admin faces is which Linux distribution to use. Then once they choose a distribution they cannot figure out how to install Nagios as it is not in the repositories of the distro they chose. Finally they do figure out how to install and once it is in place the admin wastes a huge amount of time reading documentation meant for different versions and distributions without realizing it. Oh yes, this is a very common problem when using the Internet and randomly selecting information. By the time the project is completed, and it is not uncommon for this to take 3 months the first time around, the company has paid the admin for 80 hours to work on this project for a company cost of $5200, assuming the admin gets $65 an hour over a 3 month period.

Company B:
Company B takes a completely different route. Recognizing that their Windows admins are not familiar with Linux and could use structured Linux training to help them achieve the goal, they first send two admins to an virtual training course for Nagios. In the classroom the two admins have practice servers that are available and a live instructor to ask questions and get ideas. The admins build and test Nagios in labs provided by the training company. At the same time, the company outsources the Nagios server install to the same company that trains the admins and within a month they have Nagios up and running and two fully trained admins to support the Nagios server. The training cost $395 each and the Nagios outsourcing cost the company $500. Total cost for training two admins, $2330. This assumes 8 hours of training for each of the administrators.

Time is money, every organization recognizes that time spent by administrators trying to create solutions is costly. Organizations need to weigh the cost of “Googling Solutions” over structured training coupled with outsourcing.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Postfix Consulting and Outsourcing

February 23, 2010

SpiderTools.com expands Postfix Consulting and Outsourcing Offerings
Postfix Training
The Live Postfix Training is a virtual classroom course which is 5 weeks long with classes once a week for 2 hours. Students will have access to a live mail server to set up and test configuration options. A printed 400 page manual and videos of [...]

Read the full article →

Ubuntu Server Evaluation

January 29, 2010

The Ubuntu server is the most innovative distribution for servers. It enables administrators to gain access to cutting edge technology and implement that with new ideas. If you are looking for the latest and greatest, this is the server option for you.
Focus: rating 9
The Ubuntu focus is to provide an Enterprise level server [...]

Read the full article →

CentOS Server Evaluation

January 25, 2010

Evaluating the CentOS Enterprise Server
There are a number of popular choices for Linux enterprise level servers including CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware and others including Red Hat Enterprise. This series of articles on a choice for a Linux Server will compare several of these Linux distributions to examine the advantages and disadvantages of [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Preview Professional Linux Courses

Preview Professional Linux Courses

January 22, 2010

Interested in Linux training but not sure which package bests fits your needs? Our Personal Preview will provide you 20 minutes with an instructor to review your needs and examine the manuals, the labs, watch sample videos, and examine the web interface for access to the training.
The Personal Preview
The Personal Preview is designed to [...]

Read the full article →