free or can even pay the customer. There are many advantages of businesses using ASPs. Some of these advantages include: The low cost of entry and, in most cases, an extremely short setup time. The pay-as-you-go model is often significantly less expensive for all but the most frequent users of the service. The ASP model, as with any outsourcing arrangement, eliminates head count. IT headcount tends to be very expensive and very specialized. The ASP model also eliminates specialized IT communications for the application as well as supporting applications. Also, the ASP model can shift Internet bandwidth to the ASP, who can often provide it at lower cost. Another important factor leading to the development of ASPs has been the growing difficulty of software and software upgrades. Distributing complex applications to the end user has become very expensive from a customer service standpoint, and upgrades make the problem worse. In a large company where there may be thousands of desktops, distributing software can cost millions of dollars. The ASP model eliminates most of these problems.ASPs come in all shapes and sizes. If a person were to start a small business today, they would probably begin by contacting three or four common ASPs, like a Web hosting company Companies like Verio and Webhosting provide a common ASP scenario -- virtual web hosting. These companies provide hardware, software, bandwidth and people to host Web sites for companies and individuals. Typically they charge something like $15 to $30 per month for the service, and may host hundreds of accounts on a single machine. Another would be an email provider like a Web hosting company that provides some sort of email service with your Web hosting account. There are two other alternatives: Free services like HotMail or Yahoo Mail or email server ASPs who run Exchange servers, POP servers or IMAP4 servers and distribute them on a monthly fee basis. The advantage of the second a...
