Cmgt 442 Outsourcing Risks

Outsourcing Risks

Mobin Bahrami

University of Phoenix

Information Systems Risk Management

CMGT/442

June 29, 2012

Brian Hoff

Intro

Outsourcing means contracting out the business function to an external provider involving an exchange of services. Outsourcing is a practical option for many organizations to save money while improving efficiency. Unfortunately, outsourcing brings risks to organizations, and there is no way of protecting from all known risks. Some risks associated with outsourcing include poor communications between the business and the service provider, loss of control of business data, and security risks. The propose of this paper is to identify possible risks associated with outsourcing satiations in data storage, information systems, desktop support, and network support scenarios along with a mitigation strategy included for each scenario.

Data Storage Risk

Many organizations, such as HP outsource their data storage, which may include data backups, employees info, or customers data. Disadvantage of outsourcing data storage can disable HP from monitoring the hardware and software needed to store the data locally. Hitachi is an external service provider for HP that uses flash drives to store data because they are small and very convenient to carry or relocate them. However, there are many risks involved using flash drives for data storage, including viruses can easily be copied to the flash drive and spread out throughout the company's network. Also a lost or stolen flash drive by someone within the company can put HP on a major risk that may have sensitive information. Because the flash drives are small and convenient to carry, also they are easy to get lost.

Risk Mitigation Strategy

The best practice is not to use flash drives to store a company's data because the risks are high and can impact the company financially. Microsoft Cloud storage is a solution that Hitachi can use to save data to an off-site storage system....