ASP Configuration

图书介绍

   

Internet service providers (ISPs) have customarily been suppliers of bandwidth and connectivity to their clients. ISPs are now finding that they are faced with a progressively narrowing margin brought on by fierce competition, with little available differentiation in their offerings. In order to reverse this decline in profitability, ISPs have begun to expand services beyond bandwidth and connectivity, by adding remote hosting services such as outsourcing applications and electronic commerce. ISPs will need to offer new sets of services and tools to manage and reduce costs.These services will give ISPs a distinctive advantage over other ISPs, while creating the opportunity to entice a whole new type of client. The ISP market is not dying; it��s undergoing a transformation��Welcome to the world of the application service provider (ASP).
As noted earlier, ISPs were primarily created to supply Internet connectivity (dial-up, dedicated, always on access), electronic mail (e-mail), and Domain Name Services (DNS).With a conversion to an ASP, there is a need to house fully redundant server-based services, high-speed data switching, and load balancing that will allow for greater levels of application service and a superior class of service to their customers.
ASPs (not to be confused with Active Server Pages, also known as ASPs) are starting to appeal to businesses by offering a variety of Web-hosted applications that allow businesses to offload functions they do not want to internally maintain, while operating on their main business strategies.
ASPs provide software programs that include e-commerce, communications, project management, financial, word processing, and human resource applications. ASPs can offer inexpensive use of software, as the price is usually based on a peruse plan rather than a licensing fee. ASPs also allow users to share utilities from multiple locations.
Different types of ASPs can also take care of the complicated functions ranging from Virtual Private Branch eXchange ((V)PBX) systems, Storage Area Networking/Network Attached Storage (SAN/NAS), virtual private networks (VPN), and Network or Remote Operations Center (NOC/ROC) services, as well as a multitude of other services that are covered in this book. Generally, it is more cost effective to leverage these ASP services rather than maintain them "inhouse," which will often stretch the capabilities of an Information Technology (IT) staff.ASPs are rapidly developing as the new Internet business in which to be.
Many ISPs are changing their business model to become ASPs.The most successful of these will deliver applications in a secure, highly available infrastructure that will provide network support, and implementation and maintenance. For a conversion to be successful, you need to understand the different areas of ASP operations, the infrastructure changes that will occur, and the business issues that will present themselves in this new venture.