The Big Blue is making the state of Indiana and its residents see red. In a series of events that began with the signing of a very profitable outsourcing deal between the state of Indiana and technology outsourcing company IBM, the deal has now ended up with IBM (NYSE:IBM) filing a countersuit against Indiana late last week in an affair that began as, well, somewhat good, to bad and now, to worse.

Contrary to what some naysayers of outsourcing are saying, the industry is alive and well, and it seems that it’s going to stay for a long while yet. As mentioned in a previous article, competition in outsourcing is becoming very stiff now, what with the industry expanding, as is what professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers surmised in its Jan, 2010 report. Everyone wants a piece of the cake, but when everyone’s toting the same salver, it’s a bit difficult to decide to whom to give a piece to.

Last year, the economic downturn caused some organizations to temporarily scale back on I.T. outsourcing efforts while they tackle fundamental issues including keeping the company afloat. This year, I.T. outsourcing is making a comeback… in Asia. As Dell Services (NASDAQ:DELL) Chairman Jim Champy predicts the Asian I.T. outsourcing market will grow much faster in 2010. “IT outsourcing is set to rise in Asia as the region’s companies begin to modernize business processes and technology systems in a build-out that could last decades. We see, as most providers do, the Asian markets growing faster - clearly more than Europe, and certainly faster than the US”, explains Mr. Champy.

Keeping abreast with the world is certainly a difficult job, especially now with social media, blogs and other such sources all over the place; it’s becoming difficult to know exactly where to look.  I myself have different favored sources of information, including those for news headlines, and social media, that I search regularly.   On one such occasion, I came across the Top 10 Business Deals of 2009 from TIME.com.  With regards to outsourcing, the item included in the top business deals for 2009 was the HP (NYSE:HPQ) - EDS deal.

In an aggressive attempt of major technology manufacturing firms to diversify its markets for more consistent revenue streams, they have been buying and bidding for business process outsourcing services firms.