Should You Outsource Data Warehousing: A Checklist

* Stability derives from a long-term and continuous system operation in an environment controlled by an organization. We’ve all read of, and many of us have experienced, the difficulty of the Application Service Provider (ASP) model for various outsourced technology offerings.

To attract customers, ASPs must price aggressively, and often will price services at a loss intending to make it up in volume. As such, you can assume the following: (a) the outsourcer must buy the same hardware, software and support infrastructure you would to in-source the solution, and (b) to achieve a cost savings from scale, your system and data either will be commingled with those of other ASP clients, or the system will be under-powered.