This IDC presentation analyzes the results from the hosting infrastructure services section of the IDC's 2011 U.S. WAN Manager Survey. The hosting infrastructure related questions in the survey explored a number of issues, including companies' current and planned use of third-party hosting infrastructure services, outsourcing drivers and inhibitors, service provider selection factors, use of cloud infrastructure services, and spending on hosting infrastructure.

The 2011 survey results showed a slight bounce-back in third-party hosting adoption and recovery from a loss of momentum during 2010. "There was considerable new penetration among very large businesses (5,000+) and at the high-end of the small business segment (50-99 employees), says Melanie Posey, Research Vice President, Hosting & Managed Network Services. "During 2012, we expect to see movement toward third-party hosting (both cloud-based and tradition) fueled by increased interest in security and backup recovery solutions, as well as business continuity/disaster recovery overall.