Stories by: Stephanie Overby

When it comes to information technology and business process outsourcing, China has been on a tear. Global services exports from China nearly tripled, from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $3.5 billion in 2010, with IT services accounting for 65 percent of the total, according to a report released this month by outsourcing consultancy and analyst firm Everest Group.

IT departments that rely on foreign and offshore workers to staff projects could see their initiatives held up by staffing shortages caused by H-1B visa processing delays and increased scrutiny of guest worker visa programs, according to industry watchers.

Established IT outsourcers are getting squeezed at both ends of the competitive spectrum. According to the annual offshore outsourcing survey conducted by Duke University's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) and PwC, incumbent India-based and U.S. IT service providers are under pressure from outsourcing upstarts in other countries that are stealing market share from them and from existing clients demanding price reductions.

U.S. outsourcing customers seeking nearshore alternatives to offshore outsourcing hot spots need not look far for the leading options. Mexico is their best bet, according to a new ranking of Latin American outsourcing locations by outsourcing consultancy ThinkSolutions.

The specifics of Hewlett-Packard's planned shift away from hardware remain unclear, and opinions about the company's stronger focus on enterprise software and services have run the gamut from "corporate suicide" to "it's about time."

While midsize companies came later to the IT outsourcing party than their big company counterparts, recent research shows that they may get more out of their IT services deals.

Dispute resolution is always an important consideration when outsourcing IT. If that fails, however, you can always sue if your provider has breached the contract.

To those who know their IT outsourcing history, GE and offshoring are practically synonymous.

The Infosys employee who is suing the Indian IT service provider for allegedly violating visa and tax laws in order to increase its profit margins has gone more public in recent weeks, providing written testimony of his claims to Congress and instructing his lawyer to share internal Infosys documents and emails with CIO.com that appear to back up some of his assertions.

Traditional IT outsourcing customers are struggling with cloud computing, according to IT service providers and outsourcing advisors surveyed by KPMG Sourcing Advisory. IT service providers and advisors rated their IT executive customers' facility with various aspects of cloud computing on a scale of one to five, where one represented "very unskilled" and five represented "very skilled." IT executives earned embarrassing scores from their providers and advisors: None garnered even a middling score of three.