Many companies have adopted a 'partnering' approach to outsourcing their IT requirements in the past. Supplier and customer work alongside each other, and the supplier invests in understanding their customer’s business in order to tailor their solution to best meet their needs. How will this model have to change to take advantage of cloud services? A partnership style of relationship might appeal if only to allay some of the fears about data security and lock-in often seen as barriers to moving services into the cloud. But, is such a model feasible or even necessary in a low-cost commoditised service environment?