What makes a country a good offshore candidate? According to IDC analyst Cynthia Doyle, a country ideally needs to meet four main requirements:

• IT talent
• English fluency
• Solid telecommunications infrastructure
• Business experience with U.S. companies

Doyle says India is the only region that truly meets all four, thanks to its vast population, which translates into much larger IT labor numbers than in other regions. Ireland, she says, has been popular for U.S. nationals relocating abroad, but the country's relatively small population hinders it somewhat."Ireland definitely meets the English language requirement, has a solid infrastructure, strong government support and a fairly low cost base but doesn't have the vast pool of IT talent because of its [small] population," says Doyle. But "it's rapidly becoming a hub of Europe, thanks in part to the spread of e-commerce throughout Ireland."

One country that's rapidly gaining acceptance as a "near-shore" IT region is Mexico, Doyle says. "It's a relatively new market opportunity, rather like India was like 20 years ago. Mexico has the same or similar time zones as U.S. companies, and it's just a few hours by plane. And the cost advantages are between 25 percent to 40 percent over U.S. counterparts."

Other countries are getting attention, but many of them face significant hurdles, Doyle says. Russia, for example, "has a large population and a pool of IT talent, but they fall down on English, and there are serious infrastructure and political and economic stability issues," she says.

The same is true for Romania. The Philippines, meanwhile, "has the infrastructure but has political and social turmoil," Doyle says. "It's a great example of a country that's got enough IT talent but is almost shooting itself in the foot due to unrest."