An application service provider delivers IT services over a network, allowing employees to access software applications from an offsite location. This offers cost savings, technical support, and standardized versions of software. Some providers offer services to individual users, such as web-based mail services.
An application service provider is a company that businesses use to deliver information technology needs over a network. Specifically, company employees access software applications and other IT services from an offsite location, which is the application service provider. This access is over a network, usually web-based. Employees log on to the server to do their jobs.
Using an application server offers several significant benefits for a business. First, the company should not purchase the software applications used by its employees through the application service provider. This potentially offers huge savings, since software can be expensive even when purchased at volume discounts.
Second, a business can expect that by using an application service provider it will knock its technical support quotient down. Since the application service provider grants access to its servers and software, it must also be responsible for making sure that a company’s employees are able to use that software effectively and efficiently.
Third, an application service provider will necessarily have standardized versions of software applications. This eliminates the problems associated with employees using different versions of an application. It also means that updates to some software applications used by a company’s employees will be the responsibility of the application service provider. To keep its customers satisfied and its services up to date, the application service provider will necessarily have the latest and greatest versions of every piece of software it offers.
Most of the application service providers are corporate in nature, as described above. However, in this day and age where everything is web based, some application service agreements are for individual and disparate users. For example, web-based mail services such as Yahoo! Google Mail and Gmail are this type of service.
Every person who has a Yahoo! or Gmail account counts on Yahoo! or Gmail to function as an application service provider for email purposes. Other search engines, including Lycos, also offer such services. And not just email. Yahoo! and Microsoft offer a suite of online applications, including calendars, note programs, and other services.
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