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An Application Service Provider (ASP) is a software
vendor that rents software to companies over the internet
instead of selling it. Traditional software programs
are copied
onto compact discs/cd-roms, and then sold
to consumers who load these programs on their hard
drives or file servers. Application Service Providers,
on the other hand, keep the software on the hard drives
of their own file servers, and customers pay a fee
to use the software over the Internet.
There are many cost savings in moving toward this
type of service, also known as Software As Service
(SAS). One of the prime motivators is that the cost
of deployment is minimized, as is training. Maintenance
costs are also eliminated. Many traditional software
vendors are now offering SAS and ASP services, even
Microsoft is in transition to joining the ranks of
application service providers.
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