Intel spotlights app hosting option at InternetWorld

By Laurika Bretherton for Intel

Chicago, 12 Jul 2000

Chicago InternetWorld 2000, one of the largest e-business events in the US, opened yesterday. Michael Aymar, president of Intel Online Services, presented the opening keynote address. Intel also announced a new Internet application hosting option.

Aymar said the e-commerce industry is following in the footsteps of the computer market, whereby it is becoming more specialised. He broke the e-commerce industry down into a four-layered pyramid, with network services at the bottom, followed by operation services, then applications and finally, solutions.

The network services layer consists of companies that provide bandwidth and intelligent routing of packets around the Internet - companies like Cable and Wireless, AT&T and UUNet. "It is their job to move packets around the Internet efficiently with high performance and reliability."

Operation service companies provide the facilities where data is stored and managed, applications executed, and where transactions occur. He cited Intel Online Services as an example.

The third layer includes the companies that create applications for the Internet. Some are start-up companies creating Internet applications that never existed before; others are more traditional software companies that view the Internet as a new delivery mechanism.

At the top of the pyramid are the solution services companies. These companies develop content, strategies and e-commerce sites. An example is PricewaterhouseCoopers. "They offer various solutions, each with its own capability. You will see them working in concert. You will see one company being the lead professional service company, shopping out pieces of the job to specialised companies," noted Aymar.

"A key part of our strategy is to have very close working relationships with other suppliers in the pyramid - the network services suppliers, the application service suppliers and the solution service suppliers. We view these as critical alliances. We can only respond to the market segment and offer customers best of class components in each layer if we work together," he concluded.

Aymar also introduced AppChoice Managed Hosting Services. "It has been designed for customers who want control of their mission-critical applications along with the benefits of a fully managed outsourced hosting solution."

According to Intel, AppChoice offers a hosting platform that includes hardware, operating system and applications as well as the networking infrastructure and data protection components of a reliable e-business solution.