Multivendor ASP 2000 initiative in Europe helps ASPs get to market earlier, reduce risk

Leading e-business technology and solutions providers Microsoft, Unisys, Cisco, EMC and StorageTek last week announced "ASP 2000," a European initiative that brings together market-leading technologies to meet the end-to-end infrastructure needs of application service providers (ASPs). "ASP 2000" will enable ASPs to draw on the members` expertise, services and R&D investment to develop new solutions based on the latest technology more quickly and provide more reliable and comprehensive service to their customers.

As part of the initiative, the group is opening a European Centre of Excellence (COE) in Paris in September 2000 where ASPs can fine-tune their infrastructure and solutions and obtain Applications Performance Certification.

This initiative provides technology and services, delivered by Unisys as a complete solution, integrating the network, datacenter servers, software, storage and backup so that ASPs can go to market earlier with the best, most thoroughly proven and most competitive offerings. Designed to support the demanding requirements of e-business, the Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000, combined with the imminent Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, is the cornerstone of the "ASP 2000" data centre architecture, delivering the highest levels of performance, availability, interoperability and manageability for such mission-critical environments.

Dataquest, a unit of Gartner Group, predicts that the European ASP market is expected to grow from US$293 million in 1998 to over US$7.1 billion by 2003. The ASP business model offers considerable technical and financial advantages over traditional software purchasing and licensing.

Typically, ASPs are service firms that host, manage and rent access to applications for customers from a centrally managed facility, providing them with a contractually agreed level of service. Quality of service is measured by the ASP`s ability to ensure no single point of failure, to accommodate increasing network traffic and processing spikes, and to deliver a solution tailored for local requirements. The "ASP 2000" initiative enables ASPs to meet their service level requirements quickly and efficiently with best practices and a technology infrastructure that ensures data security, availability, reliability and scalability with minimum cost of ownership. The result is responsive, economical service to their customers. ASP Centre of Excellence in Paris

The European ASP Centre of Excellence (COE) is equipped to reproduce locally a typical ASP data centre architecture, with Unisys e-@action Enterprise Server ES7000 systems, Microsoft software, Cisco networks, EMC storage and StorageTek libraries on a single SAN (Storage Area Network). Located at the Unisys Technology Centre (UTC) in Paris, the COE is the start of a long-term collaboration among the five companies, and will soon be opened to other partners in order to offer the fullest possible solution to ASPs.

The COE will offer various services to optimize ASP end-to-end solutions:

network and data management design, proof of concept, thin client application validation, Web enablement of applications, software architecture audit, redesign and migration. Microsoft and Unisys consultants, based permanently at the Centre, will also deliver application performance certification using best of breed benchmark software.

The COE will be interconnected via Internet to the five other UTCs in Milan, London, Frankfurt, Zurich and Amsterdam, providing a pan-European `Virtual COE`. The services and the infrastructure of the Centre will then be accessible remotely from any other centre locations and will also allow architecture proof of concept and software performance certification using "real world" Internet connections, rather than just local simulation.

Further details are available on the partners` website at www.ASP2000Centre.com Also, see the backgrounder at www.unisys.com/news </news/releases/2000/jun/06216933.asp>

What the members say

Microsoft
John Leftwich, Vice President, Microsoft EMEA: "This initiative underlines the growing importance of the ASP market, particularly for SMEs wanting to focus on their core products and services rather than managing their IT infrastructure. Windows DNA 2000, Microsoft`s core contribution to the "ASP 2000" initiative, gives ISVs the ideal ASP development platform and provides ASPs and datacenter hosters with the right combination of interoperability and ease of management as well as the ability to scale up and scale out."

Unisys
Robert Tillotson, Vice-President Marketing, Unisys Systems & Technology EMEA: "In a highly competitive, growing market, ASPs need to react fast to changing business demands from their customers. "ASP 2000" combines proven, best-of-breed technology to give them a fast route to scalability, reliability and performance, so they can deliver their service commitments without fail and still grow their businesses. Unisys can guarantee large system project management skills, enterprise knowledge and very robust platforms, which is exactly what ASPs need.

Cisco
Robert Lloyd, Vice President of Cisco`s Enterprise and Small to Medium Lines of Business EMEA, comments, "ASPs can now benefit from the combined expertise, programmes and market leading technologies of the "ASP 2000" members. This joint venture will provide clients with totally integrated solutions delivered by high calibre companies within an Eco-System designed to deliver best of breed solutions." He continues, "The New World of Internet applications is changing the demands of an increasingly sophisticated market and has thus endorsed the role of the ASP, in bringing the latest, most dynamic services and applications to market. We at Cisco are excited about the opportunity to work with both new and existing ASPs to better meet the demand for integrated hosted solutions and business services based on Cisco Intelligent Networking infrastructure and subsequently, accelerating the deployment of these services."

EMC^2
Nigel Ghent, Marketing Director at EMC^2, said "Application service provisioning has been billed as one of the biggest growth areas in the Internet driven world. By creating "ASP 2000" EMC^2 will be at the centre of the European ASP explosion, providing telecommunications and ISPs with the technology to deliver on the ASP promise."

StorageTek
"For `New Model Internet Economy` companies, turning to "ASP 2000" initiative, to deliver a whole infrastructure on which the business is based, gives advantages of service quality, speed, scalability and capital financing;" commented Jean Pierre Boushira, Strategic Alliances Director EAME for StorageTek. "Managing the volume of incoming data along with the information already residing on existing company servers requires a proven and reliable solution. StorageTek`s products offer the functionality that organisations need to support on-line applications and through our work as part of this ASP initiative we are showcasing how our products form an essential part of any ASP infrastructure."