In addition to reading Melanie's post below and her work over the last year on this topic, you can also get a look at the hosted-vs-premises debate in this very cool cross-blog debate that our friend Dave Michel is conducting.Dave is debating Michael Graves, who has a SOHO VOIP blog; you can read Michael's counterpoint to Dave here.
I'll let you read the two pieces and reach your own conclusions; I'll just make an observation on approach rather than substance: Dave and Michael recognized that to have a debate, you have to really debate, that is, express definitive opinions in pretty much absolute terms. That's something we learned in the days of the VoiceCon Great Debate. The years that the debate succeeded were those years where Cisco and Nortel went at it for keeps, hurling the most damning arguments about the other's position and drawing sharp contrasts to their own technologies. In contrast, the less successful debates were those where the participants rushed to the middle and minimized their differences.
Realistically, the answer is always going to lie between the two poles, and there are plenty of forums where enterprise decision-makers consider these grey areas. But a debate is for drawing clear distinctions--and is also for entertainment. Dave and Michael have succeeded in putting the issues in sharp relief for buy vs. rent.
