Application service providers (ASPs) have been touted as the answer to future corporate computication. Broadly speaking, ASPs are organizations that remotely host software applications and enable access to those applications on a "pay per play" basis.
Many of the benefits of using an ASP are easy to identify: rent vs. buy; installation and update savings; and a level of application-specific knowledge that most corporations would be hard-pressed to maintain or support internally. This industry has potential -- even if not fully realised, as Fortune reports.
New to this market are ASPs that focus specifically on security. Security ASPs can offer some real advantages over the hit and miss protection currently maintained in most corporations and government agencies. The hitch is -- not yet.
