An Application Service Provider (ASP) manages and delivers application capabilities to multiple users from a data centre across a wide area network on a fixed monthly subscription basis.
Companies no longer have to own or operate all the hardware and software on which their business runs. Users can have on-demand access to applications that are located in remote data centres as well as continuing to access in-house IT resources of their own.
In effect, ASPs extend the choice on how to optimise IT environments to make companies more competitive in the marketplace.
ASPs meet business needs by reducing the complexity of IT ownership, through the use of a subscription model for application provisioning, and by providing value-added services. This is achieved by ASPs financing, implementing, hosting, managing and supporting applications for use across a wide area network, typically the Internet.
