ASP is an industry buzzword, but organizations that want to cash in on the trend are left to decide, which, if any, applications to outsource.
Many factors play into that decision.
The concept behind the ASP is to use the existing infrastructure of the Internet to deliver applications to organizations that want to lower their IT overhead, allowing them to exert control over the spiraling costs of software, hardware, and human resources. Many applications can be delivered efficiently over today's Internet, as bandwidth continues to grow at a pace that has quieted the critics. These developers see the trend toward a browser-based standard that will simplify and standardize the interface that most businesses will use to access their applications, whether externally delivered via an ASP, or run internally in the traditional manner. While many organizations see the benefits of the ASP model, some IT managers and CEOs are struggling to decide whether to outsource all applications, a portion of their applications, or none of their applications. Many factors play a role in that decision.