We're not implying that it's easy to find, negotiate, implement and manage these services, but there is at least a track record for service providers in these areas. Emerging services are fraught with many more pitfalls. To prove their worthiness, service providers in new markets often will give customers top-notch attention. Early adopters of these new services also must understand that the services themselves will likely morph on their way to maturity. Thus, contracting out new breeds of services may amount to as much hassle as running the services in-house.
History shows that the no-brainers come with a fundamental scale of economy.
Wide-area data and voice services are an example. The economies of scale in many of the emerging xSP models, as well as in human-intensive services such as customer support and desktop management, are less clear. The number of service providers after your ever-scarce IT budget has ballooned during the past year. Web application hosting is an area that's expected to grow quickly, and it's one that might be worth considering. The good news is that evaluating ISPs is comparatively easy because of the track record of this sector.