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Mexican Hotel Chain Outsources IT To US

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the backwards-day dept.

cweditor writes "Grupo Posadas has five data centers supporting more than 100 hotels and other lines of business, but it's moving almost all of those operations to a service provider in Texas. Could cloud service providers help the U.S. become a destination for tech outsourcing instead of an exporter of tech jobs? One stumbling block: The U.S. finds itself on the receiving end of protectionist legislation in other countries that discourages use of non-domestic IT service providers, says the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation."

9 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Host in USA - get free backup by Keruo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Todays offer, host in USA, get free backup from NSA.
    Only problem is getting back the copies once the cloud service crashes/vanishes underneath.

    --
    There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
  2. Blatant lie by aepervius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The US finds itself on the receiving end of protectionist legislation in other countries that discourages use of non-domestic IT service providers"

    That is a misrepresentation. most country I know of which view the US cloud service warrily, do because of the privacy protection of their citizen. One cannot guarantee any privacy protection once the data is on US soil. Neitehr can one guanrantee that the US will not subponea the data. THAT is the reason some country do not want their cloud data in the US, or outside their own juridiction for what it matters.

    --
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    1. Re:Blatant lie by Tailhook · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Even if one accepts the claim that the US is a privacy liability, that claim is orthogonal to whether other nations impede US services with protectionism — those two possibilities may coexist just fine. Despite this obvious fallacy the parent characterizes the latter as a `blatant lie' while citing nothing credible.

      Please try not mod this nonsense up. I know we're supposed to indulge privacy outrage around here but the parent is crap. Find some other, less stupid malcontent to amplify.

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    2. Re:Blatant lie by Tridus · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, it's not. The US government screams "protectionism" when other countries pass things like privacy laws that don't allow you to store private data outside the country precisely because of the US government's fondness for spying on everything. If you have to keep data private legally, it's a pretty bad start when a cloud provider shows up and can't explain why they won't have to hand a Canadian business' data on Canadian customers over to a US spy agency on totally arbitrary conditions.

      Sometimes the two aren't related, but sometimes they are.

      --
      -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
    3. Re:Blatant lie by Concern · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hmm. I'm usually the first one to point out mistaken beliefs about US superiority in general, or certainly in terms of privacy protection or civil rights.

      I can't speak for Mexico. However, I don't believe i.e. India offers any privacy protection that the US does not. In fact, in most outsourcing hotspots around South or Central America or the Pac Rim, you not only have even fewer stated protections, but you are dealing with governments that are even less, shall we say, predictable. You also have to be concerned about how safe and easy it is to do business (with i.e. an outsourcing firm, hosting company) in places where the quality of the civil courts is not so great. And, let's be real - in many nations where IT outsourcing once boomed, the court system is more a theater for bribery than a forum for the practice of law. And then there's the well-documented danger of collusion between the state and large domestic companies, or even organized crime, to a degree that even the US still blushes at (and the US does not blush at much, especially these days)...

      I did once investigate whether it was possible for an American to go to India in reverse of what normally happens in IT - to study there, or take an IT job there, either for several years or perhaps to emigrate. I came away with the impression that it would be harder as an American citizen to go there, than as an Indian citizen, to come here.

      I think our trade and immigration policies are often ridiculous, but especially so when, in our era of "free movement of goods," the US doesn't even extract bilateral agreements on the free movement of people, after speaking with the relevant lobbyists to determine what the visa quotas should be. :)

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  3. Top 5 Reasons Not to Outsource to US by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Top 5 reasons not to outsource to US:

    5. Can't trust those Americans with your data.
    4. You'll lose control over your infrastructure.
    3. Low prices are temporary and will increase as the global economy continues to balance
    2. Perceived cost savings are more than offset by the additional cost of having to spec everything out to the point where you're better off doing it yourself.
    1. You won't be able to understand them when you call for support.

    1. Re:Top 5 Reasons Not to Outsource to US by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That strikes me as the top 5 reasons not to outsource anywhere.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  4. Dilbert by KDN · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Years ago Dilbert had a strip where they outsourced to country A, who outsourced to company B, and so forth until it was eventually outsourced back to themselves. Its finally happened :-)

  5. Calling support... by drkim · · Score: 4, Funny

    Of course this get better when they call the support number and hear:

    "Hello... I.T. support center. This is Joe-Bob, uh, I mean, uh, Pedro. How can I help ya'all?"