Outsource vs in-house

Since the dawn of Data Centers IT managers have wrestled with the question: Should I bring the application in house or should I pay monthly fees for someone else to manage it. This age old problem is even more important then ever. Software companies have embraced managing software for their customers. In the old days this was called "timesharing" today it may be called SOA (Software as a Service), Hosted Solution, or Application Service.

• Outsourced/Service: The advantage of this approach is less setup. Disadvantages include potentially high total cost (if done on a per-user basis), limited access to result data and potential lack of security (because data is hosted on someone else's server).



• In-House Hosted:Advantages include a fixed software price, more control over look and feel, and "total control" over result data. More setup is required with this approach but the process is faster because the author does not need to do everything through a browser.