Application service providers (ASP) useIn researching another unrelated stock, I came across this portion of article. Link to entire article is below but specific section is posted below.
https://www.itu.int/journal/200106/E/html/broadband.htm
Application service providers. The basic idea behind an application service provider (ASP) is that, instead of buying packaged software on a CD-ROM, subscribers would rent it and pay for it either on a "pay-as-you-go" or on a flat rate monthly fee basis. Similarly, instead of hosting your own website, you could outsource this mission-critical task. For the software company, selling via an ASP offers a new marketing channel, allowing potential users to try out software without heavy up-front costs but without the possibility to make an illegal copy before returning it to the vendor. For the user, buying from an ASP means that you always have the very latest release of the software available and an online help facility when problems arise. Market leaders in the business include Usinter-networking (www.usi.net) and Loudcloud (www.loudcloud.com). But perhaps the biggest splash to date was made by Microsoft's announcement of its .Net strategy, which promises to change the way software is sold and used by making it available over the Internet from anywhere in the world. Like the other applications listed above, such a move from local to distributed- information storage depends crucially on being able to have equivalent access speeds over a wide-area network to those enjoyed over a local area network. Again, that sounds like a job for broadband. ––
Interesting article as it applies to engineering.com
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