ASP.NET Spurs Web Hosting Push

Windows Server remains the leading server OS, but Linux has gained market share as a solution for hosting Web sites because of its low acquisition cost, ease of server provisioning, and operational reliability. Microsoft’s Solution for Windows-based Hosting, recently updated to version 2.0, could shift the balance, taking advantage of improvements in Windows Server to shorten the time required to provision and manage Windows servers. The solution also taps a growing market of corporations that want ASP.NET applications but don’t want to host them locally, and ISVs and integrators that want to offer custom applications to multiple customers.

Microsoft believes that the combination of lower management costs and the potential for higher server revenues from support for ASP.NET applications will attract more service providers and partners, who are also likely to purchase other Microsoft server offerings, such as SQL Server and Exchange.

Movement to Hosted Applications

Hosted applications are appealing because they can help customers eliminate or reduce data center administrative costs, deploy new services more rapidly, save on hardware and software licensing, and keep applications updated more easily. However, efforts to make a business out of remote access to packaged applications, such as Great Plains, SAP, and Office, bubbled and crashed in the late 1990s. Aside from their reliance on high-speed WANs, which were expensive, service providers had to provide advanced management for large numbers of servers.