One Bright Spot: The Sustainability of Green

Although outsourced innovation will be set aside in 2009, the greening of IT outsourcing deals will not... if only because sustainability can mean cost savings. "Purely environmental desires will take a back seat to explicit cost savings desires," says Lepeak of EquaTerra. "But green that hits the bottom line will flourish."

The only question is-who will see that benefit on their bottom lines?

"There will be a push by buyers on service providers to lower their cost of operations by employing green techniques and pass that savings on to the buyer," says Cohen. "Service providers are trying to go green for own profitability. Buyers will push for that to become a cost improvement for themselves rather than a profitability and performance for the vendor."