But those cost savings may be short lived and slight. What's more, RIM isn't for everyone. "Maturity in this market has led organizations to identify the processes that are better delivered locally and to select service providers [based] on flexibility and customer intimacy as well as price," notes Paul Cornelisse, managing director of Equaterra's information technology advisory.

Overall, most infrastructure services--desktop, midrange and network services--will decline at single-digit percentages in 2010, according to Compass America. That excludes storage costs, which will continue to decline another 25 percent in the coming year.

Of course, the majority of cost savings that can be achieved by offshoring infrastructure support are labor-based. "Organizations should keep in mind, that if assets are included in their vendor's pricing, offshoring is unlikely to have a significant impact because the hardware and software that makes up the majority of the price is unaffected by the locale of support personnel," says Bob Mathers, senior consultant with Compass America.

The biggest news in the outsourcing industry in 2009 was . HP completed its integration of EDS, and new mergers were announced between and , among others.