Directory, Exchange Guides Help ASPs

Microsoft’s 2000-series product line-up has many features, such as Active Directory, Group Policies, and Intellimirror, that offer application hosting companies tools for managing their applications and customers, and automating service delivery, all of which are crucial to controlling costs. However, these features are new and unfamiliar to many customers. To smooth deployment of key products among application service providers (ASPs), Microsoft has prepared guides that describe the technology, contain detailed keystroke-by-keystroke implementation instructions, and in some cases offer sample applications. The main problem: Microsoft’s Internet Service Network (ISN) Web site, the main source of information about deployment guides for hosted applications, is poorly organized and finding all the pieces can be difficult.

What the Guides Achieve

Making products easier to deploy builds support for Microsoft’s products, eases the transition for application developers who want to explore the unfamiliar world of hosted applications, and helps Microsoft compete against the Unix platform, its main competitor in the ASP market.