static class variable allocated at heap

Hi,

a project I'm involved in has code in the form:

class toConnectionProvider
{
    static std::map<QCString, toConnectionProvider *> *Providers;
....
}

A provider can register itself in the map:

void toConnectionProvider::addProvider(const QCString &provider)
{
    checkAlloc();
    Provider = provider;
    (*Providers)[Provider] = this;
}

and there is a member function which checks if the map is allocated.

void toConnectionProvider::checkAlloc(void)
{
    if (!Providers)
        Providers = new std::map<QCString, toConnectionProvider *>;
}

I have the following questions:
- AFAIK Providers is never "deleted" until program exit and usually
  I expect a new/delete pair for dynamic memory allocation.
  So I guess the idiom above(static class variable allocated at heap)
  is not kosher ?!
- Is the code above a candidate for refactoring ?
  A quick change would be to convert
   map<>* Providers;
  to
   map Providers;
  Is it a essential improvement ?
- Another idea would be to make a separate class
  toConnectionProviderManager which stores the providers in a container.
  Is it a good idea ?
- What other solutions come to mind when considering such code ?

Thomas

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