Now, Chernick said in a keynote address yesterday to an attentive audience, ASPs are being asked to perform at the Enterprise level, and that is quite a challenge. The problem, he said, is that enterprises are looking to hand off highly customized applications, but service providers aren't ready to take them. Frequently, the ASPs can't provide the end user response time enterprises require. But after that, they're gone.
Enterprises are interested in using ASPs, but both of the existing models have flaws.
But very few ASPs meet that standard. The constellation model links a number of specialized ASPs in an ASP ecosystem, solving all of the integration and service problems on demand, then passing the data to the enterprise. According to Mark Friedman, an ASP consultant who joined Chernick and Harvey on the stage, the development of ASP ecosystems would be great for enterprises, since it would optimize the technical challenges and allow the enterprise to focus on business solutions. It would also benefit ASPs, since they would be plugging into a known entity, with known standards and needs, easing the decision process. Chernick envisioned a future characterized by clusters of ASP ecosystems, linked to networks of e-business ecosystems, with interaction between all of them, as needed, on demand.