As IT outsourcing grows in popularity, firms have been offered some guidance on which regions are the most suitable when offshoring network support.

Industry analyst Gartner compiled a list of the 30 top countries and placed India at number one ahead of the chasing pack formed by China, Russia and Brazil.

European locations highlighted as offering good IT outsourcing operations closer to home included the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Northern Ireland and Ukraine.

"The aim of the study was not to rank each country, as every organisation will have a different view of which factors are most important for their needs, but rather help sourcing managers determine which locations are right for their organisations," said Ian Marriott, Gartner research vice president.

Gartner's study focused on criteria including the languages spoken by workers in the country, the level of government support enjoyed by the industry, average costs of agreements, political and economic stability and the country's record on intellectual property security and privacy.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).