In recent years, business via the Internet has grown exponentially. The increasingly competitive global marketplace puts pressure on companies to create and deliver their products faster and with higher quality as well as greater performance. Consequently, the deployment and management of business applications via the Internet is becoming more and more complex, which requires the deployment of new Internet architectures suitable to run these business applications efficiently.

The application service provider (ASP) model has emerged as a way to deliver e-commerce applications efficiently and at low cost to the end user. The emergence of ASPs has led to the private distribution of special software applications to businesses and consumers via the Internet, intranets, or extranets. These applications range from word-processing programs to payroll-management software to enterprise resource management applications. The systems used to distribute these software serves are referred to as the second-wave Internet.

To help service providers, application developers, software companies, and end users gauge the current state of the ASP market, the International Engineering Consortium is pleased to present Application Service Providers: Current Status and Future Trends. This focused, strategic study reviews the current technologies, business models, deployments, and strategies employed by key ASPs today—the ones at work to define the market space and scope of the ASP opportunity. The report places particular emphasis on current market trends, future growth directions, standards, enabling technologies and architectures, and products and services.

Application Service Providers: Current Status and Future Trends features the results of a targeted Delphi survey of industry experts focused on the ASP marketplace. As such, it presents the consensus view of industry executives and shapers currently leading this critical sector. Use these invaluable insights to help refine your own business plan as it relates to the unfolding ASP opportunity.

This report is intended for executives, managers, and professionals from companies offering various hosted applications and services; companies that subscribe to such services; and those who are developing technology solutions and infrastructure designed to move the ASP industry forward.