For completeness, you could add a “Colocation” (“rackspace” ?) layer at the bottom for just power-pipe-and-ping hosting. Examples are rackspace.com, Savvis, Verio, etc.

Jim

Nice roundup! There are two predominant viewpoints for these taxonomy discussions – inside-out, and outside-in.

Much of the existing work to date has been inside-out: insiders in the industry discussing the nuances of different technical solutions and defining buckets to categorize them. This is very important for insiders to help drive detailed debates into who is doing what and with what technologies. But that is not the right focus for outsiders looking to solve a problem.

I think you have hit on the outside-in view. An outsider wants a solution to a project they already have or plan to build. They don’t need to know the nuances to start with – they just want that short list of numbers to call to get engaged with the right providers. The sales teams will then help them sort out what they need. I like your “If you have [this], look to [these] guys.” approach for this.

A consumer friendly taxonomy!

PJL