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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TheStockFairy who wrote (4004)	9/28/2001 3:07:04 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

Experts: Co-location firms must improve to survive By Gareth Morgan, ZDNet (UK) September 25, 2001 2:26 PM PT URL: zdnet.com Managed service providers (MSPs) are struggling to attract corporate customeres because their offerings are simply not compelling enough, said experts at the IDC European IT Forum in Monaco last week. Co-location centres are too commoditized, and many managed service providers simply do not offer enough sophistication in services management, said James Eibisch, research manager for European Web hosting services at analyst firm IDC. "The industry is looking rather sickly compared with how we predicted it would grow," he said. IDC research has found that hosted data centres are currently only about 25 percent occupied, so there is scope for consolidation. Eibisch predicted that within five years there will be fewer than five pan-European co-location vendors. He said the survivors will improve their managed services to make them more attractive to businesses. Eibisch said firms want to see better service level agreements and better skills, before committing resources to outsourcing. The ongoing skills shortage, combined with the increasing complexity of infrastructure required for a fully functional, secure and integrated Web presence, would continue to encourage firms to use managed services, said Andy McLeod, chief executive officer at Integra, part of MSP Genuity. "There is a dichotomy between the desire for control internally and the lack of skills to do so in European corporates," he said. IDC reported that 12 percent of IT positions in Europe were unfilled. Per Andersen, managing director of IDC for the Nordic countries, added that many firms did not understand what managed services were currently available.