ASP model versus PC model, what is ASP and how dose it work. This web page will address and try to explain in an understandable way what ASP is all about.

ASP stands today for Application Service Provider, that's how it has become to be used within the IT Industry. But if you are used with Internet and creating web pages, you may also have come across the name "asp", which stands for Active Service Pages.

Application Service Provider has as a industry-segment-description been "reborn" , it is nothing directly new, but it has got a new "life" due to the demand of making small handy terminal available without having the need for all the software as in a traditional PC's. To provide Applications from a Main-Frame Computer system, and then have "non" intelligent working stations, was the way the computer industry was looking up to the time the PC-age and the PC boom came. 

The PC age turned up side down on all the computer manufactories and got IBM, WANG, TANDEM and others down on the knee, to accept, that PC computers where just not a short coming gadget.

Having listening to a number of so called "industry-experts" from a verity of small and larger consultancy companies during the year 2000, I most say that there is a confusions on what ASP truly is.

In some parts of the industry, any one who sell a service, are treated as an ASP provider, but a true ASP model is truly a question about how a technical infrastructure are built up and that you in such structure only have ONE "brain", or let us clarify that, and say that you have the application running in one place, and than connect terminals as clients.

Allow me therefore to describe the differences between a ASP model and a traditional PC model.

PC model versus ASP model
If you are a owner of a PC or Lap Top, you know, that you most download and install each application / function into the PC itself. This is quite time-consuming and having a larger network of PC Working stations, it may start to create a hurdle to maintain.

But this is how we do it today, and there are hundred of million of PC computers out on the private market, corporate environment and within governmental organizations.

Every time you need to make any upgrade to one or more software applications, you need to buy such upgrade, get it shipped to your home or office and if you run a network of computers you must go around to each PC and do the same installation. You can of coerce upgrade and do allot over the network, still you need to do it on all the PC / Clients individual systems.

The ASP Model
Let us now change this picture and bring all of the applications as components into one system. The system platform (ASP CENTRAL) can either be located in your office as a server or as the ASP Industry define it, in a centralized Application Center, which your office and its systems / terminals, directly are linked into, and run its application.

In this picture, we have brought in all the applications into the "system-platform" and than handy terminals or just a terminal without a PC can access the System-platform and use all the applications.

If any thing will need to be updated, you will only have to do it in one place.

This is a simplistic way of describing the different in-between the two models.

Now the big question comes, whish model will be the solution for tomorrow?

I my self think that we will see both of this basic-models around, it will not be either of them, due to a number of reasons.

Let me give you a few arguments:

  The human being, loves to collect "things".
  We like to have control.
  Would I trust a third party to have all our documents and data.
  We already have a PC and we are planning to buy a more powerful one.
  What would happen if the ASP provider go down or go out of business.
  How can I get it to work for my own needs.

The main argument for addressing the ASP model is the benefits of just having one place to update and you could eventually also create a better order of the things you do. 

Another argument, and maybe a main argument, is that you can have cheaper "terminal-units" in the hands of the user, and by that save substantial amount in investment.

We will also most likely see a large range of new terminal-units to be introduced, which would lift up the larger benefits of using ASP model to its fully extend. There is other areas their also the ASP model could eventually help development areas to sooner start to use more sophisticated services.

Take a highly populated remote area, a city with poor financial means, install one central ASP Central and connect terminals in the whole community, with wireless connections or through network, there even standard copper-wire could be more than enough, would help such community to get on-line. If you as the reader have come across any good example for any project, I would appreciate your comments and tips, just click here and write me a few lines.

One lane or highway?
If we look at the explosion of Palm-Computers and Hand-held PC units, we can see that the last year 2000, was a start of a new generation units to arrive to our collection of "terminals". You can today find hand-held units which are most likely the same environment as you will find on your Laptop or your PC. So even if the "propaganda" towards the "upgrade" hurdles seems to fade away, with smarter Palm and Hand-held units coming out to the market, we may not see any ONE-WAY solution, there is room for both the PC model as well as the ASP model, which I my self prefer to call, xSP model. A combination of the ASP model and the traditional PC model in medium size company or a company located on more than one location, would in the future be most effective. If than we would add to that picture, new wireless LAN solutions, like Bluetooth or other symbionts, there functionality are brought together to give the user a suitable tailor made solution. And maybe the latest, are one of the concerns with the ASP model, users and decision makers worries to be able to tailor-make the profiles of its network of users. So one of the things we may will see on the market soon, is some type of rooming-user-profile, which easily will follow me around, where ever I would be, and what ever type of access terminal or system I would use.

Virtual office?
There is always specific users groups for specific application, features and functions. During all my years of developing new consumer applications for IT and Telecom, each new service, gadget, system or application, has always found its way to the one who needs it most. To get other group to accept or start to use a new service, needs a lot of education.

Let us also take a little look at the Global Office or as it also are called Virtual Office, a perfect solution for an ASP provider. The concept are built upon the idea, that your office environment, running as an example under Window Office, would be available, just via a terminal rather than a PC. There is most likely a lot of solutions out there on the market, I will here address two example on a Office-Online function. One was introduced in the US, I think late 1999, and an other example was already invented in Sweden 1996.

Lets start in the US, there one of the "big" one in the ASP industry, Pandesic, went bankrupt during 2000. That is not so good information, but the reality. The question is why?

Accordantly to an article I have picked up, the reason would be that the competition for offering ASP-solutions is tuff and that it is costly to start up a business as a Application Service Provider, with small revenues, hence the ASP provider need to compete with the traditional way of how companies and potential may normally buy their applications. An other important factor to a lot of hurdles for the ASP movement, are the fact that a number of potential and strong customer groups, took the opportunity and upgraded there system for the Y2K debate, whereas thy have systems in excellent conditions. Then any argument to go over to a new-thinking, make less since to their principals.

This is not the end of the ASP Industry, Its the opposite, I would say.

We can now clearly start to see a well organized strategic movement towards ASP solutions from everywhere, there clearly the "big" once has joined up in a new movement.

In Sweden we can see an other side of the story, a company founded 1996 STEGET, has got a new profile and are today known as STARTandRUN.com, a start-up and strong candidate for showing the world how to do it right.

What Start and Run has target, is the small and medium size companies, and they provide via their portal a true virtual office with all the support and help the small company or the start up company may need. The Service are free for the user and sponsored by the company who eventually offers services to the customers. A number of Banks and professional company consultancy company stands behind the concept, and it seams to win necessary market penetration to be a winner.

The service from Startand Run, is only available in Swedish and the Norwegian languish as of today, but most likely we will see it in more new languishes during 2001.

Revenue model based on the ASP model.
In a later stage, or should I say, when time so permit, I will add a web page to this theme explaining and elaborate how the ASP model could be used in an innovative revenue model.

Sources for more information

Is truly one of the big pioneers and also the one who are working hard for teaching the world about ASP and also the huge

Pay per Usage
The ASP Model, or as I call it xSP model, is perfect to use as a business model and a strategic model for how to integrate new business services to any new service provider within the Internet Society.

This text is brought in here from the web site of CitrixASPCentral, click on the logo and you can read more from this excellent website.

What is an ASP

Application Service Providers represent a new global industry devoted to reliable, predictable and efficient delivery of advanced application services to a broad range of businesses and individual consumers. An Application Service Provider (ASP) offers access to applications, as well as the associated IT infrastructure and support services, to customers on a subscription basis. ASPs host applications at a remote data center and deliver them to customers over private networks or the Internet. There are many types of application service providers. Some focus on augmenting in-house enterprise IT professionals with best practices, such as document management; while others provide enterprise-class software services to small- and medium-sized organizations; still other ASPs offer specialist software packages to vertical markets, such as education, manufacturing, or healthcare. Typically, the ASP charges the end-user organization a fixed, monthly fee based on application usage and services rendered, such as additional requirements in hardware, service and support, maintenance and upgrades. ASPs share several characteristics:

What Application Services Does an ASP Provide?

ASPs deliver transparent software services - including the deployment, integration, access, training, management and support of applications - with no up-front investments in application licenses, servers, people and resources, and at guaranteed service levels. Whether provisioned by the ASP alone or in conjunction with partners, from a customer perspective, he is purchasing a single service from a single point of contact: the ASP. Behind the scenes, however, a complex ASP supply chain exists to deliver a variety of competencies in the areas of services, networking and applications, to name just a few. ASP offerings typically encompass the following application services:

• Access - Analogous to "pay-per-view" television, ASPs deliver application access to users on demand for a fee, allowing the customer to use the application without having to license, maintain or support it.
  

• Infrastructure operations - ASPs operate the data centers where applications are hosted, providing software management, security, and disaster recovery, and business functions such as billing and usage monitoring.
  

• Network connectivity - These services, often delivered in partnership through local telecommunications firms or Internet Service Providers, may include connections to the Internet, operation of a Virtual Private Network, and reliability, performance and security management.
  

• Support services - The ASP provides end-user helpdesk support and training services surrounding the application's use.
  

• Management service - Applications are hosted and managed at a central site, rather than each customer's site, and delivered to users in remote locations. This includes daily administrative tasks associated with running applications as well as managing upgrades and updates.

Active Server Pages

n. A Web-oriented technology developed by Microsoft that is designed to enable server-side (as opposed to client-side) scripting. Active Server Pages are text files that can contain not only text and HTML tags as in standard Web documents, but also commands written in a scripting language (such as VBScript or JavaScript), that can be carried out on the server.

Source: Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fourth Edition

Symbiont
n. An organism in a symbiotic relationship. Also called symbiote. [Greek sumbion, sumbiount-, present participle of sumbioun, to live together.