US Universities are showing increased interest in outsourcing. IT decision makers are looking to the discipline to help them meet important challenges and priority business initiatives, according to a survey from CDI IT Solutions.

According to the survey, the biggest challenge faced by higher education IT leaders is the need to effectively balance the provision of resources for their constituencies against their focus on strategic initiatives. Some other important challenges highlighted include: preparing for disaster recovery; the ability to testing systems; application development; security (threat of breaches) and IT staff retention.

"As their CIO counterparts in the private sector learned in past business cycles, IT leaders at colleges and universities are beginning to recognise the value of outsourcing services to stretch tight budgets while maintaining quality service delivery to faculty, students and administration," comments Andy Cvitanov, president of CDI IT Solutions.

Half of the survey respondents said they already outsource some IT services with the most common being those considered non-strategic, such as student email, laptop distribution, printer support and project management. Nearly all respondents said they thought outsourcing would be good for their institutions.