Slashdot Mirror
Mumbai Bombings Give Outsourcing Community Pause
theodp writes "eWeek reports that the big fear of offshore outsourcing customers has become a reality: a major bombing attack in an outsourcing hub. In the wake of the attack, companies are considering their resources and preparedness. Despite understandable fears, people on the ground don't seem to think these latest attacks will have a long-term effect on the growth of India's tech sector." From the article: "The terrorist attack in Mumbai--and conflict between Israel and Lebanon for that matter--raise a series of questions for companies sourcing technology globally. Do you know the disaster recovery plans of your offshore services provider? Are their plans integrated with yours? And how prepared are these providers? "
Three considerations, IMO, outweigh the rest:
* Telecom infrastructure
* Work process
* Geographical diversification
You need reliable telecom infrastructure for obvious reasons. You need good work processes for backup and the like, but even more so that if you lose the people on a project, somebody else can step in and at least understand what needs to be done. And you need geographical diversification so that, if worst comes to worst, there IS somebody else to step in.
To the extent you have those three, outsourcing or otherwise doing business in unstable places can be a smart risk to take. If not, you can be very badly exposed.
To err is human. To forgive is good system design.
For your information, no.
Punjab did have a violent separatist movement in the 1980s. That's history now. There's far more separatist violence in Corsica or the Basque country. Or Quebec.
And what, exactly, makes people think that India is going to be more subject to future terrorist attacks than... well, you fill in that sentence any way you please.
Oh, I don't know... maybe it's that little feud they've got going on with their next-door neighbor Pakistan, AND both of them have nukes?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Excuse me. I am an Indian and I live in Mumbai. Within 6-8 hours of the blasts the railway system had resumed completely. Everybody resumed their work on the very next day. Schools, Colleges, Offices - everything remained open. Nobody panicked. There was no chaos. There were no riots. Life was as it was before the bombings. Only thing that is worth mentioning was that the telephone networks ( cellular and POTS ) were jammed due to excessive calls. Oh and yes, people were searching for the dead / injured ones. But that has nothing to do with technology right? :/
Now compare this with what happened in London, Madrid, NYC. Being in a particular region doesnt make you 100% safe from such things. It can happen to anywhere, at any place without any warning.
And this is in Australia, where the government really doesn't like admitting that people actually are political refugees when they can possibly deny it.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem