At the US Fusion 2000 business symposium for Microsoft channel partners, Microsoft announced new resources and business terms for application service providers as it begins to roll out its .NET strategy.
Application service providers (ASPs) will be able to take advantage of new technical resources, partnerships, licensing and certification programmes in offering software as a service on the Microsoft platform, especially Windows 2000, SQL Server 2000, Exchange 2000 and Office 2000.
"Microsoft`s .NET vision will establish a new world of dynamic software services," said Steve Ballmer, president and CEO of Microsoft. "ASPs, developers and channel partners can participate in this vision today by building, customising and reselling XML-based, programmable Web services, integrating .NET building block services such as Passport, and customising and reselling bCentral small-business services."
"Enabling ASPs to offer Exchange 2000- and Windows 2000-based services requires unique skills gained only from experience," said Jeff Lynn, VP and GM of Compaq Professional Services.
"Compaq Global Services provides a broad range of life cycle services for hosted services. From initial planning to design to implementation to management to ensuring high availability, Compaq Global Services is the premier partner for enabling service providers to offer Exchange 2000 and Windows 2000 DNA solutions."
"EDS has a long history of success in applications management and managed operations," said Tom Ament, VP of EDS. "We have been working with Microsoft to launch our Windows DNA- and Exchange-based on-demand services. We will enable channel partners to jumpstart their application service offerings with minimal investment and leverage their core competencies."
Microsoft also announced the ASP Certification Programme to help customers and partners identify ASPs that meet a level of service readiness, competency and capacity for deploying, operating and supporting Microsoft technology. The certification programme will comprise a DataCenter operations readiness self-assessment followed by on-site assessments.
Share
