Codestone

Category: Support & Managed Services

Outsourced IT is becoming an increasingly major trend in corporate computing, according to an expert.

Benjamin Woo, an analyst for market intelligence firm IDC, told Computerworld UK that the rise of managed services has become a significant factor in the area of data centre management.

"While large enterprises will maintain their own data centres and probably continue to provide IT services internally, an increasing number of small and medium business leaders are moving towards hosted services," he observed.

Mr Woo noted that the decision to outsource tends to be driven by business unit leaders rather than IT staff, while also stating that core IT services are increasingly being delegated to external providers.

These include customer relationship management and human resources information systems, while collaboration tools such as email are also being outsourced.

His conclusion is supported by a recent US report from Insight Research, revealing that the managed services sector is forecast to grow at a compounded rate of 12 per cent over the next five years.

Posted by Jamie Rees