Around 50% of companies host their Web sites and ebusiness infrastructure themselves, using their own facilities, and that figure has been quite stable in recent years. New pressures are emerging, however, that challenge the wisdom of hosting in-house. These include the rising costs of power and cooling, the growing imperative of green IT, and the gradual shift of costs such as power from facilities departments to IT organisations within companies.

In the past, many companies that considered their hosting options saw a choice between doing it themselves, using a bargain-basement Web hoster of uncertain quality or entering into a contract with a high-end IT outsourcer or integrator. The hosting industry is maturing and consolidating, however, and hosting specialists have emerged in the middle market that offer high-quality capabilities and service at realistic prices. This IDC White Paper examines this market and draws conclusions on the approach.