IDC projects $2bn ASP market
Mar 31st 1999: The first report to formally size the high-end application service provider (ASP) market projects it will reach $2bn worldwide by 2003, rising an average 91% annually. Leading research and analysis company IDC's new bulletin, Worldwide Application Service Provider Forecast, 1998-2003, sizes the market at $150.4m this year, counting only those ASPs who provide advanced services and complex applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Companies who merely host and maintain simple applications are excluded. The report, published Monday (Mar 29th), says that various factors will drive the market, but that ASPs must work to overcome customer concerns by building successful long-term references. "After 1999, we'll have a better idea about how well and how fast the ASP concept will be accepted," said IDC senior analyst Meredith McCarty. The 16-page report is priced at $1,500.
o IDC
o Report press release
HP hosts ecommerce package
Mar 30th 1999: Hewlett-Packard today launched HP Emporium, a packaged ecommerce solution for mid-sized enterprises that bundles consultancy, implementation and six months' hosting into a fixed price typically less than £90,000 ($150,000). The first two users of the service, which is available in the UK immediately and will roll out in Europe and worldwide before the end of the year, are leading European consumer magazine publisher IPC and Formula 1 motor racing team Benetton F1. Under the scheme, HP will first guide customers through a series of workshops to establish the objectives for the site, then implement it on its own hosting platform based around Microsoft Commerce Server, and finally host and manage the site at its Bristol UK data centre. The company intends to develop Emporium into a service product that is sold and operated by ISP partners within the next year.
o Hewlett-Packard
o HP Emporium
App service touts server buyback
Mar 26th 1999: Leading Web banner ad management software vendor DoubleClick yesterday offered to buy customers' onsite ad servers in return for them moving to its Dart online service. Subscribers to Dart have online access to ad management software running on DoubleClick's own servers, and pay according to the number of ad impressions served. Under the buyback scheme, customers moving to Dart from an existing onsite system can trade in their redundant hardware for cash, and receive a credit against their Dart charges to compensate some of their previous investment in buying and implementing software. The New York City-based company said that over 90 of its clients had already abandoned in-house servers in the past year to move to the Dart service. The new scheme is intended to encourage others to follow suit, particularly from home-grown systems and from DoubleClick's main rival NetGravity.
o DoubleClick
o NetGravity
Sage Networks nabs Interliant
Mar 18th 1999: Fast-growing Web hosting provider Sage Networks announced today that it acquired application hosting and rental pioneer Interliant last week, and has adopted the Interliant name. Cambridge MA-based Sage first revealed the acquisition earlier this week when it filed papers with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) for an initial public stock offering (IPO) on Nasdaq. It also revealed three other new acquisitions, bringing the number of companies acquired since its inception in December 1997 to fifteen. Houston TX-based Interliant, founded in 1992, has a strong track record in Lotus Notes and Domino hosting both in the USA and in Europe, and jointly co-developed Domino Instant!Host, the Lotus hosting platform for rentable applications. The acquisition brings valuable business app hosting expertise to Sage, which last month revamped its Web hosting products and services around the theme of application hosting. The merger creates a group with estimated annual revenues last year of $41m.
o Sage Networks
o Interliant
o Acquisition announcement
NCD tilts at Citrix monopoly
Mar 16th 1999: Thin client manufacturer Network Computing Devices (NCD) yesterday (Monday) announced the first products in a revamped software range which competes directly with Windows terminal technology leader Citrix Systems. Launched under NCD's new ThinPATH software brand name, the range is a modular family of add-ons for use with Microsoft Windows NT Terminal Server (WTS) or its predecessor Citrix WinFrame. They have been priced deliberately to undercut the cost of the latest Citrix products, announced last month (see 23rd Feb story, Citrix beef for server farms). "Customers no longer need to buy a Cadillac when they only need a sedan," VP of worldwide marketing Maggie Sanchez told ASP News Review in a briefing last week. The first products to ship include a module for server load balancing, and a package that adds support for local printers, audio and other devices to WTS networks. Other modules to ship in the spring will offer remote desktop management features for both NCD devices and PCs in WTS, Winframe and MetaFrame environments. NCD has also included its existing terminal emulation add-on software for Windows terminals under the ThinPATH brand.
o Network bandwidth management vendor Packeteer announced Monday it will add application-specific monitoring and control to its PacketShaper products for Citrix deployments. The feature allows network managers to prioritise traffic for individual applications and users over others.
o NCD
o ThinPATH announcement
o Packeteer
o PacketShaper announcement
Sun coins portal computing
Mar 11th 1999: Launching a new release of NetDynamics, the application server platform it acquired last year, Sun yesterday (Wednesday) unveiled the concept of portal computing, which extends the portal metaphor beyond content to embrace application integration. According to Alan Baratz, president of the company's Java Software division, the technology allows businesses to create portals which "integrate and host corporate applications on the Internet." Sun claimed the product set new standards for application servers in terms of scalability, performance and a quality it dubbed "time to portal."
o Sun Microsystems
o NetDynamics 5 announcement
MS to put FrontPage online
Mar 5th 1999: Within a wide-ranging announcement of commerce products and services yesterday, Microsoft revealed plans to introduce a browser-accessed version of its FrontPage site builder. Microsoft Small Business Commerce Services will be a subscription-based package for small businesses to build and manage e-commerce sites online. It will include links to promotional services on Microsoft's MSN portal, such as the LinkExchange Web advertising network, search engine registration and affiliate networking. Sites created using the online tools will be compatible with the vendor's desktop site design package, FrontPage. Later, support will be added for BizTalk, the XML-based framework for exchanging business transactions that Microsoft also announced yesterday. The new service will be available both from MSN and from partner ISPs in the third quarter 1999. No details of pricing were revealed.
o See related News Review story (Feb 1st) Microsoft to allow apps rental
o Press release
o Product description
o Overview of Thursday's announcements
Interpath challenges ASP model
Mar 4th 1999: Regional IP network provider Interpath Communications launched a portfolio of application services this week with the claim that ASPs who do not own and manage their own networks cannot offer customers the reliability required for mission-critical applications. Based in Research Triangle Park NC, Interpath describes itself as a Network-Based Application Service Provider (NASP), emphasising its ability to offer an end-to-end solution extending from the network itself all the way up to the applications. "The long-term success of IP-based services is going to be measured by carrier-class speed, security and reliability," said president and CEO Chris Darby. The company on Monday (Mar 1st) launched a suite of what it calls Virtual Private Applications (VPAs), ranging across e-commerce, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and communications applications, but did not name any of the vendors involved. An announcement on Wednesday (Mar 3rd) revealed that its messaging services will be based on Netscape products. Interpath, which operates an 850-mile fibre optic network centred on North Carolina, is a wholly owned subsidiary of power utility Carolina Power & Light.
o Interpath Communications
o VPA announcement press release |