New York, New York - (The Hosting News) - April 23, 2008 - A new report released by New York-based independent research firm, Tier1 Research (T1R), analyzes financial implications of developments affecting recent trends and future directions for the managed hosting sector.

Analysts at Tier1 Research (T1R) find in a new report that the managed hosting sector has experienced tremendous growth in the past 12 months - in excess of 30% - driven by several trends. These trends include virtualization, business continuity services and security technologies, driven both by enterprise demand and regulatory compliance.

Despite the dipping economy in the US, there has been increased managed hosting adoption by SMBs and mid-tier enterprises in both the US and Europe. Rackspace, Savvis, AT and T and Verizon Business have been the biggest beneficiaries of this market growth, being the clear leaders in the managed hosting sector. These findings are contained in a report released today by New York-based T1R, an independent research firm that analyzes the financial and industry implications of developments affecting public and private companies within the hosting, IT, communications and Internet sectors.

Antonio Piraino, Senior Analyst at T1R and author of the report noted, ''There will be continued jockeying and consolidation in the managed services sector as larger storage companies continue to eat up smaller backup-and-recovery service offerings, and encroach more on the territory of managed hosters. Similarly, virtualization, security, compliance, virtual computing and storage, and international expansion will all drive expenditure in the next year.''

The 'Managed Hosting: Market Overview Spring 2008' report is part of a series of quarterly reports designed to provide timely analysis and perspective on key technology trends and developments in the managed hosting marketplace. T1R analysts find that managed hosting providers have had to broaden the scope of services offered over the course of the past year, and 2008 looks to be no different.

Key areas of focus for the market include SaaS hosting and continued adoption of platforms serving as both exchange point and facilitator of new online services. Several new technologies and emerging service lines will also play a strong role in the growth of the managed hosting sector. Virtualization technology will be a key aspect of such offerings, as will the ability for customers to obtain such services in an on-demand manner.

Utility storage and computing services will show strong growth, with new competition coming from established managed hosting providers like Savvis and Rackspace. Some of the other trends transforming the industry today include e-discovery services, managed messaging and IM, managed VoIP, managed databases and managed application services such as SAP (and other ERP and CRM approaches), and new dashboards and operating consoles enabling customers to partake much more proactively in new provisioning and trouble-ticket creation. These advancements are not only coming from the managed hosting sector, as there is additional pressure coming from the mass-market hosting sector, as well as the traditional technology suppliers in this space.

This 55-page report, titled 'Managed Hosting: Market Overview Spring 2008,' includes a summary of the major events and trends shaping the managed hosting sector in 2008 and provides market-share data on the top public and private players in the market, as well as updated forecasts for 2008 revenues.

Key Companies Covered The report covers the key public and private companies in the managed hosting market, including AT and T, Savvis, Rackspace, SunGard, Terremark, ViaWest, Peak 10 and OpSource.

T1R, a division of The 451 Group, is headquartered in New York. The company analyzes the financial and industry implications of developments affecting public and private companies within the IT, communications and Internet sectors - with a particular focus on hosting, Internet infrastructure and IT services. Clients include institutional investors and technology vendors, along with end users and venture capitalists. The clients leverage T1R's analytical insight for idea generation, trend identification, due diligence and grounded opinions, as well as metrics and forecasts on companies and industries covered.

To learn more about T1R, please visit: www.t1r.com.