Gartner warns IT leaders to consider alternative delivery models or risk being bypassed

That’s the stark warning from analyst Gartner, which says it has now identified 14 alternatives that it believes will completely transform the IT market in the next five years. Mark Margevicius, research vice president at Gartner, says advancements in technology are enabling new ways to deliver, package and procure IT. Traditional methods of IT acquisition and delivery are wrapped in well-honed internal processes where IT develops or acquires technology, deploys it, supports it and retires it, he explains. Even when part of the IT service is outsourced or handled offshore, the provider runs the day-to-day service and may own part of the assets. The client IT function retains most of the risk and responsibility for the overall design and management of the technology life cycle. “Traditional practices of technology life cycle ownership, where the organisation buys, configures, manages, optimises and retires technology for its own use, are being questioned as to their efficiency and effectiveness, so alternative delivery models for technology and services are emerging,” he says. “Alternative delivery and acquisition models include new channels for acquisition, use and payment. And in some organisations, alternative models involve only users and business units, bypassing the IT function.” He mentions market excitement over web platforms, software as a service and other IT utility services, and predicts that interest will intensify and increase business buyers’ appetite. “During the next five years, a broad set of new and alternative IT delivery models will become mainstream,” he warns. “Today’s environment enables a level of IT decoupling and modularisation never before available,” agrees Claudio Da Rold, vice president at Gartner. “Technologies such as virtualisation and Web 2.0, as well as mobility and ubiquitous computing, allow for extraordinary changes in how IT and business services are delivered. “This accelerated change and the associated market excitement will affect the business and technical spheres. Drivers in both areas are converging to create a new market order where traditional and alternative acquisition and delivery models coexist.” Gartner’s 14 alternative delivery models include: business process utilities (BPUs); infrastructure utilities (IUs); storage as a service; grid computing; communications as a service (CaaS); utility computing; capacity on demand; remote management services; SaaS; Web platforms; community source; software streaming; software-based “appliances” (SBAs); and user-owned devices. Its report ‘Alternative Delivery Models: A Sea of New Opportunities and Threats’, explains these models, how they will radically transform the IT marketplace and the implications of an irreversible trend toward the industrialisation of IT services.