How will issues, such as security concerns, hold back the large-scale adoption of cloud computing that the industry is anticipating?
MS: Security appears to be the single largest gating factor for clients who are making decisions about cloud computing. Until those are resolved, implementations will continue of either private clouds or smaller scale pilots.
Even though TPI does not track this space, do you expect to see a continued increase in the volume of activity for MSPs in the midmarket?
MS: Yes, we are seeing markedly increasing interest in the midmarket for services ranging from just co-location to varying levels of managed services. Smaller IT departments are feeling the pressure to spend less time and effort on what is viewed as back office and become part of the mix to increase market share and improve competitiveness. Also, CIOs of midsize firms are not keen to spend precious time in this challenging market on the day-to-day issues related to IT.
Where will companies look to invest as it relates to outsourcing? What will be the hot areas?
MS: Cloud computing will continue to be hot in 2010. What is great for the CIO is that cloud computing is primarily successful with standardization of software and hardware platforms, which is always the mantra of the IT team. I think we'll continue to see smaller sourcing deal sizes as clients become more granular in their requests from the market. Areas such as service desk, provisioning of customer devices such as PCs and PDAs will continue to grow.
Also, clients will struggle with how to create a ubiquitous interface between their networks and any type of device presented by employees or partners -- from iPhones to BlackBerries, and PCs to netbooks.
