The top IT services trends of 2010
From the changing face of offshoring to the suppliers making the most from government
As we prepare to say goodbye to 2010, silicon.com takes a look back at the biggest IT services stories of the year.
In the public sector, IT suppliers were warned by the government to expect tighter margins on Whitehall tech contracts in Public sector's mega IT projects are dead, suppliers told. However, IT vendors are still earning a healthy income from Westminster today, as government spending figures published in November showed: The suppliers making most from government IT revealed.
In the private sector, UK businesses have been running their own IT services from offshore locations for more than a decade - but why do they do it? silicon.com explored the trend in Offshoring: Why businesses launch IT operations in India.
And India, with its low-cost base and its groundswell of IT graduates, is attracting non-native IT services companies to set up large operations in the country, leading to fierce competition for manpower: US giants deepening their footprint in Indian outsourcing.
In India, perceptions of the IT services industry are shifting, thanks to improving security and employment practices in outsourcing following the murder of a call centre worker five years ago: The crime that shook Indian outsourcing.
silicon.com also offered a glimpse of life inside two IT service hubs in India - with this look at the offices of major Indian outsourcer HCL, Photos: A tour of an HCL Indian campus, and an Indian base of French outsourcer Steria, Pune: Inside an Indian offshoring campus.
The popularity of offshoring IT services has led to foreign IT services companies bringing staff into the UK, although a government cap on immigrants from outside the EU Migration cap coming next year - but intra-company transfers exempt is unlikely to affect IT staff transfers: Immigration cap won't hit foreign IT worker numbers.
Cloud computing also gained in popularity in 2010 as a way of accessing IT services, and silicon.com set out what CIOs need to consider before deciding to access their IT services from the cloud: Six things CIOs must consider before moving to the cloud.