|
10.19.05
What Are Hosted Applications?
 By
Martin Day
As access to the Internet becomes more widespread with faster, more reliable and 'always on' connections becoming the norm the growth of applications using the hosted application model continues to expand.
Although hosted applications will not suit every situation, or every customer, they offer many individuals and organizations, as well as the application manufacturers' themselves, considerable benefits over the locally installed application.
A hosted application, also known as Internet-based application,
web-based application, online application and Application Service
Providers (ASPs) are software applications where the software
resides on servers that are accessed through the Internet instead
of the more traditional software that is installed on either
a local server or on individual PCs.
The thin client concept is nothing new but advances in
Internet connectivity have allowed the application to move from a local
server to a server on the Internet.
An example of hosted applications would be Salesforce.com that
provides customer relationship management facilities, Netsuite offering
all-in-one business management applications and SurveyGalaxy.com that
provides their customers with an enterprise survey and questionnaires
application.
What Are The Benefits?
Reduced costs, instant deployment, easier to maintain and reduced administration are among some of the main benefits.
Low Maintenance
With hosted applications the hardware and software is the
responsibility of the vendor with the client only having to maintain
access to the Internet. As there is no software to download a hosted
application can be made instantly available across an entire
organization even where the organization has multiple regional and
international offices.
As there is no software the considerable time and resources required for periodic updates is also completely eliminated.
Reduced Cost
The need to license software through a 'per use,' 'per concurrent
user,' 'per server' or 'site' license has been eliminated. Although
some hosted applications still do charge 'per user' many have taken the
opportunity to charge on a 'usage' and/or 'period' basis meaning that
the customer does not have to estimate the number of licenses that will
be required, nor install and pay for full licenses that may only be
used by some employees occasionally.
This hosted application model also allows the smaller organization
and sole trader access to applications written using advanced
software development tools and that utilize sophisticated database
technology and high-end servers. The capital investment of the
hardware and software as well as the security, backup and server
maintenance cost are all the responsibility of the vendor.
Read
the Full Article
About the Author:
Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy Ltd a web site
that allows anyone to create, design and publish online
surveys. For more information please visit
http://www.surveygalaxy.com
|
