Survey: Outsourcing gaining popularity in the Asia Pacific

13.03.2009
A survey commissioned by technology giant Hewlett-Packard has revealed that the current financial crisis has brought about an increased tendency for IT heads in the Asia Pacific to move away from the mainframe and outsource aspects of their enterprise IT operations.

The survey covered 490 business and technology executives across the globe, between December 2008 and January 2009. More than 100 (128) respondents were from countries in the Asia Pacific, such as Australia, China, India, Japan and the Philippines.

Survey results showed that 29 per cent of the Asia Pacific respondents indicated they were likely to move away from the use of mainframes. This figure is higher than the 22 per cent result showed for the United States and Canada.

Reasons given for moving away from mainframes were mainly associated with the high costs associated with maintenance and licensing.

"Mainframes are more expensive than today's servers," said a respondent from the Asia Pacific.

"The mobility of mainframes is not satisfactory. Every movement would product extra significant expenses. Therefore, our company must control some unnecessary costs during the global economic downturn," said another respondent from the region.