Sooner or later, every growing midmarket company arrives at an agonizing choice: Do you build your own data center or outsource it?

In greater numbers than ever before, midmarket firms are sampling a burgeoning menu of options to supply their most critical computing facilities. They range from outsourcing every stick of infrastructure to handpicking just a few key technologies for third-party hosting (also called managed services) to taking the traditional route of building it in the basement.