How Cisco IT Outsourced Network Management Operations: Outsourcing Contextual Activities to Trusted Provider Allows IT Staff to Focus on Strategic Projects

In 2004, Cisco acquired a services organization now known as Cisco ROS. Monitoring and managing Cisco LANs and the Cisco global WAN backbone - which comprises more than 10,000 devices - is an unrelenting and resource-intensive discipline. To gain the most value from IT resources, Cisco IT distinguishes between core and contextual activities. Core activities involve strategic IT programs and new technology, while contextual activates are repeatable, consistent day-to-day tasks. Cisco IT decided to outsource network monitoring and management activities for the Cisco global LANs and global WAN. The service organization would need to offer the following Service-level objectives (SLOs) for availability, An SLO that defined the operational agreement between Cisco IT and the service organization, 24-hour monitoring and response.