- CIOs are facing mounting pressure to do more with less as IT spending decreases and more technology spending occurs outside the IT department. - Unified Computing combines outsourcing managed services with cloud computing to provide IT departments agility and lower costs while allowing them to become strategic enablers of the business. - This approach provides all the benefits of cloud infrastructure alongside application skills and delivery from a large systems integrator. Companies like UEFA have adopted this model to dynamically scale their systems and lower costs.

1. The Unified Computing Revolution:
How IT Departments can Achieve More for Less

2. Introduction
CIOs are under mounting pressure to do more be able to do more with less. Continuing economic
with less, increase competitive advantage and uncertainty across Europe means that IT budgets
align IT with business strategy. To meet these are stretched and under pressure. According to
needs, CIOs must rethink the role of the IT Gartner, IT spending in EMEA is down by 3.6% in
department and move it away from providing 2012 while spending in Western Europe is down by
functional support to being a strategic enabler of 5.9%. It’s worth noting that spending on mobile
the business. Unified Computing, already utilised devices is set to rise to 15.1% in four years from
by companies such as UEFA, is now being 12% in 2012, which indicates the general
adopted by many CIOs to help them make this expectation that people should be connected to
transition and stay ahead of the curve. This what they need using the device and channel they
whitepaper outlines the issues faced by CIOs prefer. IT departments need to provide a better
today and how Unified Computing can and more responsive service to their lines of
revolutionise the way IT departments operate. business without incurring any additional cost.
Unified Computing, utilised by companies such as
Gartner Inc states that 90% of total technology UEFA, is an approach now gathering pace among
spending will be outside of the IT department by many CIOs looking to make the necessary
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the end of the decade . Due in part to the transition for their IT department to become a
digitising of companies’ revenue and services and strategic enabler.
in part to a technology-savvy generation of
employees who no longer require IT’s support to The premise is simple; a combination of
procure technology at work. outsourcing of managed services and cloud
computing, the precise mix being unique to each
The Gartner prediction comes at a time when CIOs company and determined by its individual needs at
are being told to ‘do more with less’, increase any given point. However, the benefits can be
competitive advantage and align IT with business revolutionary for IT departments: combining the
strategy. CIOs must now rethink the role of the IT traditional benefits of outsourcing (reduced
department within the enterprise and move it overhead, cost predictability and improved
away from the traditional functional support role services) and cloud computing (agility and lower
towards becoming a strategic enabler of the TCO) with the application skills and assets of a
business. large system integrator.
A good start is to understand what the IT But, this is not the whole story, because the whole
department must provide to facilitate the business is greater than the sum of its parts. The unified
to be agile, flexible and innovate quickly. IT has an nature of this approach bridges the gap between
essential role to play in providing businesses with managed hosting and outsourcing to deliver
the right services to deliver gains in quality, application managed services through a cloud-
productivity and business satisfaction as well as enabled model. It is a truly comprehensive service
delivering financial benefits and enabling business that comprises computing, connectivity and
growth, so the corporate IT department needs to application management which covers the entire
see itself as a service provider and be seen as a delivery stack, from network through to
service by the lines of business it serves, and applications. In other words, it provides all the cost
perhaps most importantly, by the Board. advantages and agility of the cloud infrastructure
with best practice and skills solution delivery.
In addition to providing the right services and
being nimble and flexible, IT departments need to
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3. OUTSOURCING
Outsourcing - in all its flavours - is well established as a method of allowing a business to focus on its core
activities. It is used as a means to cut overheads, the burden and complexity of systems management as well
as introducing cost predictability and specialist knowledge. Gartner states that global spending on IT services
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reached more than $251 billion in 2012, up 2% from 2011 , and, according to KPMG, IT outsourcing is growing
in the UK because enterprises are looking for ways to cut costs and are shifting their preference for how their
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core IT services are delivered . KPMG also states that UK enterprises are developing balanced portfolios of in-
house activities such as shared services combined with outsourced contracts. However the large outsourcing
contracts which have become such a constant feature of the enterprise IT mix are expensive and can be
restrictive as systems integrators with enterprise application expertise tend to tie their customers in for as long
as possible. Contracts can run for seven years or more so the enterprise needs to be able to manage the
relationship successfully as well as control the cost and the quality of the work done by the outsourcer
throughout this time.
Cloud services – that is off-premise, scalable, on-demand and frequently pay-as-you-go technology services – is
the fastest-growing segment of outsourcing. According to Gartner, spending on cloud services was up 50% to
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$5 billion globally in 2012 , and a recent IDG/VMWare survey found that European enterprises plan to spend
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almost one-third of their annual IT budget on cloud computing over the next 18 months . For today’s cost-
conscious enterprise seeking flexibility, agility and productivity, the cloud model is fast becoming an integral
part of how they deliver IT services.
CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing has hit the mainstream as a means of consuming technology services opening up the
possibility of IT outsourcing to a wider customer base with small and mid-sized organisations now able to rent
applications and enterprise-grade infrastructure as easily as their larger competitors. The apparent cost-
effectiveness and ease of use for customers means the cloud model has a long term, broad appeal and the
market has quickly become crowded, with IT service vendors of all shapes and sizes clamouring for attention
with a variety of offerings.
Despite its obvious appeal and high awareness among enterprises, the cloud model is still relatively young, so
many enterprises are still in the process of testing the model in different areas of the business rather than
opting for wholesale adoption. In the mainstream enterprise market we’re seeing more and more cases of
companies evaluating IaaS for a range of tactical purposes, such as large scale, “short burst” analytics or using
it for proof of concept testing to demonstrate the value of a new solution or to meet current problems or
address spikes in demand. While cloud computing (esp. SaaS) is now mainstream, it is still on its way to
becoming the strategic direction that many organisations want to use for the entire IT function.
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4. Caveat Emptor
As with all new trends, a multitude of suppliers appear, all keen to profit from the latest trend, offering
services which best match their own business models rather than looking at what technologies can harnessed
to offer the best model to be employed by the enterprise. The already crowded cloud market is no exception;
from the proprietary platforms provided by big names such as Microsoft and Amazon to the plethora of
‘specialised’ clouds such as web and application hosting clouds and vertical industry clouds, there is a wide
array of services on offer with variable skill sets and sometimes incomplete asset bases. Conversely, Unified
Computing takes the best technology and services in the marketplace and combines them to offer enterprises
a tailored model to leverage the full range of efficiencies, flexibility and agility cloud computing can provide.
Limitations of Common Cloud Services
 IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) is the most common cloud service on
offer, delivering compute power. This service is highly automated and
typically managed through a self-service portal. Compute resources
are at the most cost competitive when providers offer a “no frills”
service suited for those customers who simply want to outsource
infrastructure rather than skilled application or database support.
 PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service), offers the platform, including operating
system, programming language database and web server as a service. A
service which is usually employed for new application development, it
is immature compared to the others with supplier offerings which are
development focused and typically proprietary.
 SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) offers infrastructure, platform and
applications. Increasingly demanded by end users, this service is often
controlled by the application vendors and therefore offers limited
horizontal scalability across different application vendors.
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5. THE UNIFIED COMPUTING MODEL
A simple premise; a revolutionary result
The premise is simple; a combination of outsourcing of managed services and cloud computing, the precise
mix being unique to each company and determined by its individual needs at any given point. However, the
benefits can be revolutionary for IT departments: combining the traditional benefits of outsourcing (reduced
overhead, cost predictability and improved services) and cloud computing (agility and lower TCO) with the
application skills and assets of a large system integrator.
The solution orientated approach of Unified Computing allows for organisations to outsource complex IT
environments. Solutions such as web presence, enterprise applications and messaging have been pre-
engineered to meet the strictest of requirements, yet organisations are de-risked from outsourcing through
robust SLA’s and best of breed design. The vehicle for delivery, namely a common cloud platform provides the
agility and commercial catalyst to provide a higher level of service for a lower cost.
Unified Computing builds on a mature model of service delivery which addresses enterprise needs such as
compliance, service management and business understanding, but injects agility and innovation to freshen up
the outsourcing model. This approach allows organisations to outsource IT in a modular fashion focussing on
the key areas of return which amplifies the benefits. An alignment with and a trusted understanding of
customers’ business outcomes brings a personal, service orientated approach to cloud computing, using the
technology innovation as an enabler to deliver a new breed of managed IT service.
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6. Unified Computing Case Study – UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is the governing body of
football in Europe. Serving almost every European country, it has adopted a
Unified Computing approach to support its business, football competitions and
events.
UEFA only has 400 employees, so despite its international renown it considers
itself an SME. UEFA runs the applications one might expect to find in any organisation, such as financial
systems, HR systems and email, as well as the more specialist systems found within its FAME environment,
including systems to deal with ticketing, broadcast and media rights, photographer accreditation and anti-
doping monitoring systems. Its website activities include online video and mobile apps. UEFA needs a platform
which caters for huge numbers of visitors viewing videos and images on UEFA.com. Competitions can also
place substantial demands on UEFA’s online platform as visitor numbers to the UEFA website can reach 400
million during its international competition season so seamless scalability is vital.
Since 2011, UEFA has hosted all its applications and systems with Interoute, the owner and operator of
Europe’s largest cloud services platform, including its Football Administration and Management Environment
(FAME) and the UEFA.com website. The infrastructure is hosted on dedicated hardware, yet UEFA does not
own any of the hardware, nor control which server or storage platforms are used. By adopting a Unified
Computing approach, UEFA is able to turn up areas of infrastructure as needed, and borrow resource from
elsewhere. For example in the lead up to Euro 2012, Interoute was able to supply more capacity for booking
and payment pages on the website, taking capacity from areas which were less busy. This on demand
provisioning provides the dynamic scalability required by an event driven organisation for minimal incremental
cost.
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7. How to Approach Unified Computing
In order to take advantage of the range of skills and cost efficiencies that Unified Computing is able to offer,
enterprises need to identify those areas and business processes which would most benefit from being
delivered as a service, and marry them to those business processes that they feel comfortable in outsourcing
to a third party. It may be a complex CRM system which is proving very expensive to run in-house, or a
managed environment for a new HR application which has a database that requires skills which are lacking in-
house, or even an email system that all users rely on. Once this is done the organisation can review the
commercial business case and technical requirements of the process and then look for a supplier that meets its
needs.
A Unified Computing specialist can add the services and application management that is missing from the
repertoire of most cloud services providers because it has both the in-depth skills and assets to operate across
the IT and communications landscape. Such a specialist is application centric rather than infrastructure or
platform centric and will understand the IT department’s requirement to rethink its role within the enterprise.
It can therefore align its services with its customers’ business so that enterprises can manage the move to the
cloud at the pace which suits them. And because the supplier can provide a complete range of services, the
enterprise can test the cloud services model in different areas of the business and business processes in a cost-
effective way as it evaluates widespread adoption.
Ideal Attributes of a Unified Computing Supplier
A Unified Computing supplier should:
 own the complete delivery stack. This means that the supplier has
total control over the services it offers to customers and is not
dependent on third parties in order to meet any part of its service
level agreement. A Unified Computing supplier should own its
network (ideally including core fibre) data centres, cloud platform
and an in-house support staff with application skills.
 have the skills and understanding in the ‘outcome’ of the area you
want delivered back as a service e.g. application level skills, web
enablement, disaster recovery.
 offer solution-based SLAs that can underwrite the business need for
the service.
 possess the ability to integrate at a network, compute (cloud and
physical) and application level.
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8. SUMMARY
 Pressures are mounting on CIOs to do more with less, digitise the companies’ revenues and services and
find ways to deal with 90% of total technology spend being out of the control of the IT department by the
end of the decade
 CIOs need to rethink the role of their IT department, align it with business strategy and move it away
from a functional support role to become a strategic enabler within the business
 Many CIOs are turning to the Unified Computing approach to assist them make these transitions and
deliver more with less
 Unified Computing comprises computing, connectivity and managed services which covers the entire
delivery stack, from network through to applications
 This approach provides all the cost advantages and agility of the cloud infrastructure with best practice
and skills solution delivery
REFERENCES
1
Analysts Discuss Key Issues Facing the IT Industry during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2012, October 21-25, in
Orlando http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2208015
2
Gartner Says Worldwide IT Outsourcing Services Spending on Pace to Surpass $251 Billion in 2012, August 7
2012 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2108715
3
KPMG UK Service Provider Performance and Satisfaction (SPPS) 2012
http://www.kpmginstitutes.com/shared-services-outsourcing-institute/insights/2012/pdf/uk-2012-service-
provider-satisfaction-study.pdf
4
VMWare/IDG Cloud Adoption Survey http://www.vmwareemeablog.com/pdf/Cloud_Adoption_Study_2012-
Executive_Summary.pdf
AUTHORS
Andrew Slater is the Director of Unified Computing at Interoute Communications. Previously
Director of Cloud Services at Quantix, an IT services provider which was acquired by Interoute
in 2011, Andrew has over 15 years’ experience in the IT services sector.
Eira Hayward is a former editor of Computing, PC Dealer and launched Capacity magazine.
An experienced business journalist and editor specialising in IT, telecoms, and management
issues, Eira has also been an analyst with consulting firm Current Analysis.
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9. Interoute as a Unified Computing Supplier:
A Unified Computing supplier such as Interoute, with its history as both a cloud services pioneer and owner of
the largest next-generation network across the EU, is able to deliver the complete management, support,
development and cloud-enablement of critical applications, not just the benefits and cost advantages of a
cloud infrastructure.
Interoute has the capability and experience to provide its customers with a comprehensive range of cloud-
enabled services, examples of which might include:
 Infrastructure as a Service for a test and development environment.
 A fully managed platform, tuned for a customer installation of SAP integrated with a customer’s
MPLS.
 A Web facing environment ready for the customer’s application content, with fully managed
database, network, middleware, security, application server.
 Hundreds of Windows and Linux servers managed at operating system level.
 Microsoft Exchange, Lync and application development delivered back as a service.
About Interoute:
Interoute Communications Ltd is the owner operator of Europe's largest cloud services platform, which
encompasses over 60,000 km of lit fibre, 8 hosting data centres and 32 collocation centres, with connections
to 140 additional third-party data centres across Europe.
Interoute’s Managed Application Services offers end-to-end hosted and on-premise support solutions for
critical database and application environments, seamlessly integrating the management of critical applications
with the network and infrastructure.
Interoute’s full-service Unified ICT platform serves international enterprises, as well as every major European
telecommunications incumbent and the major operators of North America, East and South Asia, governments
and universities. These organisations find Interoute the ideal partner for computing, connectivity and
communications and developing new services. Its Unified ICT strategy has proved attractive to enterprises
looking for a scalable, secure and unconstrained platform on which they can build their voice, video,
computing and data services, as well as service providers in need of high capacity international data transit and
infrastructure.
With established operations throughout mainland Europe, North America and Dubai, Interoute also owns and
operates dense city networks throughout Europe's major business centres. Visit www.interoute.com and
www.interoute-IAM.com for more information.
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