Aug 31st 1999: Corio became the first customer for a comprehensive new ASP infrastructure service launched yesterday (Aug 30th) by IP network and hosting provider Concentric Networks.

Styling itself as an application infrastructure provider (AIP), Concentric is offering a complete infrastructure platform to enable ISVs and ASPs to deliver Internet-based applications and services. Branded ConcentricAIP, it caters for every aspect of the online operation apart from the application itself.

Gaining high-profile enterprise ASP Corio as the first customer for its service is a major coup for Concentric. Similarly, it is a blow for rival hosting provider Exodus, which has provided co-location space and systems management services to the Redwood City CA-based ASP since its launch last November.

Concentric will market its new service both to enterprise ASPs such as Corio, which offers established applications from Peoplesoft and other vendors, and to software vendors and dot-com ASPs who offer their own applications and services online. Customers will be able to integrate the service into their own offering without any obligation to reveal Concentric as the underlying provider. "This is absolutely designed to be private label," Concentric's director of marketing for network application services Connie DeWitt told ASP News Review in a briefing earlier this month.

There are two elements to the Concentric service, which providers can take separately or as a package.

The first element it describes as managed 'App-frastructure' services, which combine to create a hosting platform for ASP delivery of software-based services and applications. Charged on a per-processor basis, this packages the provision, configuration and hosting of servers in Concentric's data centre together with secure, 7x24 managed operations, and network services. Enterprise ASPs such as Corio can opt for complete end-to-end service level guarantees if their users access applications through Concentric's virtual private network (VPN) service.

The second element is 'e-Mediary' services. Typically charged per-user per-month, this is a range of value-added services for managing online applications, including registration, authentication, usage reporting, application monitoring and billing. The 'e-Mediary' portfolio is available separately for applications hosted elsewhere as well as those hosted by Concentric. Based on the provider's established ConcentricHost platform, it is primarily aimed at services that aggregate multiple instant online applications and services into a single offering. Features include single sign-on, a web-based customer care interface and multiple billing options, including micropayments.