Daniel Golding, vice president and senior analyst at Tier 1 Research, a New York-based firm, envisions a day when only the 50 largest global businesses - mainly in financial and Internet services - build their own data centers while everyone else outsources the task. He doesn't offer a specific time frame, but makes clear that an increase in data center outsourcing is on the horizon.

Why? As IT has grown, data centers have become ever more complex animals that require lots of care and feeding.