The service will be free, for a limited period of time, to allow developers to test applications and XML Web services online. Under the scheme the Australian Web hosting company will provide the data centre, server hardware, software, monitoring and management to host developer sites and applications.
-It gets us closer to Web developers, who are people we see as being first in the sales cycle of what we do," Hostworks managing director Marty Gauvin, told ZDNet Australia. -This makes it a really easy decision for the developer, to put it up for a month to see if it works."
This means Hostworks becomes aware of the sale much sooner, and establishes confidence with the customer, according to Gauvin.
-Microsoft has see it's very important that developers can move what they've developed to a host environment really quickly," said Gauvin. -Their software looks more professional on a hosted service."
In co-operation with Microsoft, Hostworks is also offering a 60-day trial DVD giving developers access to VisualStudio.NET tools.
