Manage U.S. data centers from India

  With a recession approaching, cost cutting--a bad habit for IT this long decade--is once again uppermost on IT executives' minds. That's good news for managed service providers (MSPs) because they claim to able to cut IT operations costs. Well, Sandip Gupta says he can go one better than North American MSPs by offering remote infrastructure management from his company's network operations center and headquarters in Mumbai, India. Gupta is president of NetMagic Solutions Inc., which today is announcing its intent to expand its MSP offerings in the U.S. and has just picked up $20 million in venture backing to accomplish just that. NetMagic, which has years of experience managing data centers in India, will offer three levels of service: basic monitoring, alert response and in-depth management, including patching and change control. Gupta claims his staff's skill sets and the time-zone difference offer added value to IT who need Linux, Windows and Unix systems support 24 x 7. He also contends that many U.S.-based MSPs are former value-added resellers who are comfortable managing PCs but are out of their depth in the data center. Finally, he says, NetMagic's costs will be lower than the competition. "We'll deliver the same service-level agreement at a much lower price point than an MSP here," he says. As the economy worsens, it's an argument that will resonate for many companies in this country.