Managed services, including cloud, hosting and service provision is a development of the continuing move to online applications, databases, processing and platforms. It is being driven by a number of factors including the driving down of costs, pressure on available resources and skills in on-premise IT departments, the broader availability and reliability of high speed online connections, growth of mobile in enterprises and the need for applications and software to work together. A major attraction factor is the ability to scale, both up and down, in uncertain times.