Thursday, April 28, 2011
What is SiteBuilder?
SiteBuilder is a template-driven, online website development tool that allows you to create a rich, customized website without needing to have any knowledge of HTML code.
What is my domain pointer?
A domain pointer is a Web hosting feature that allows you to automatically send Web visitors from one or more of your domain names to your primary website. Domain pointers also give you the ability to point a domain to a subdirectory acting as a stand-alone website.
What are the data transfer limits for each Web hosting package?
Web hosting upgrade packages have unlimited data transfer, so no additional charges will be incurred for any overages. Only the Starter Package is limited to 100MB of data transfer. Contact a support representative for the overage rate for your location.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Application service provider
An application service provider (ASP) is a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network. Software offered using an ASP model is also sometimes called On-demand software or software as a service (SaaS). The most limited sense of this business is that of providing access to a particular application program (such as customer relationship management) using a standard protocol such as HTTP.
The need for ASPs has evolved from the increasing costs of specialized software that have far exceeded the price range of small to medium sized businesses. As well, the growing complexities of software have led to huge costs in distributing the software to end-users. Through ASPs, the complexities and costs of such software can be cut down. In addition, the issues of upgrading have been eliminated from the end-firm by placing the onus on the ASP to maintain up-to-date services, 24 x 7 technical support, physical and electronic security and in-built support for business continuity and flexible working.
The importance of this marketplace is reflected by its size. As of early 2003, estimates of the United States market range from 1.5 to 4 billion dollars. Clients for ASP services include businesses, government organizations, non-profits, and membership organizations.
The need for ASPs has evolved from the increasing costs of specialized software that have far exceeded the price range of small to medium sized businesses. As well, the growing complexities of software have led to huge costs in distributing the software to end-users. Through ASPs, the complexities and costs of such software can be cut down. In addition, the issues of upgrading have been eliminated from the end-firm by placing the onus on the ASP to maintain up-to-date services, 24 x 7 technical support, physical and electronic security and in-built support for business continuity and flexible working.
The importance of this marketplace is reflected by its size. As of early 2003, estimates of the United States market range from 1.5 to 4 billion dollars. Clients for ASP services include businesses, government organizations, non-profits, and membership organizations.
Software User satisfaction
Gartner's 2008 survey of 333 enterprises in the US and UK found a low level of approval from customers, describing overall satisfaction levels as "lukewarm." Respondents who decided against SaaS cited high service cost, integration difficulty, and technical requirements.A recent report from Forrester, “The ROI of Software-As-A-Service,” examined a range of companies that chose SaaS solutions and found that SaaS does result in long-term value. Companies interviewed for the report cited several reasons for their ROI of SaaS:
Rapid deployment
Increased user adoption
Reduced support needs
Lower implementation and upgrade costs
Rapid deployment
Increased user adoption
Reduced support needs
Lower implementation and upgrade costs
Adoption
Drivers
A traditional rationale for outsourcing IT systems involves applying economies of scale to application operation, i.e., an outside service provider can offer better, cheaper, more reliable applications. SaaS-based application use has grown dramatically. A Gartner survey in July 2009 found that customers are "somewhat satisfied". Several important changes to the way people work have facilitated this rapid acceptance:
Fast, low-cost broadband is available.
Computers have become widespread—most information workers have at least basic computer skills.
Computing has become a commodity. In the past, corporate mainframes were jealously guarded as strategic advantages. More recently, applications were viewed as strategic. Today, people know it’s the business processes and the data itself (customer records, workflows, pricing information) that matters. Computing and application licenses are cost centers, and as such, they’re suitable for cost reduction and outsourcing. The adoption of SaaS could also drive Internet-scale to become a commodity.
Insourcing IT systems requires expensive overhead including salaries, health care, liability, and physical building space.
Applications have tended to standardize. With notable, industry-specific exceptions, most people spend most of their time using standardized applications.[citation needed] An expense-reporting page, an applicant screening tool, a spreadsheet, or an e-mail system are all sufficiently ubiquitous and well understood that most users can switch from one system to another easily. This is evident from the number of web-based calendaring, spreadsheet, and e-mail systems that have emerged in recent years.
Parametric applications are usable. In older applications, one could often only change a workflow by modifying the code. In more recent applications, particularly web-based ones, significantly new applications can be created from parameters and macros. This allows organizations to create different kinds of business logic on a common application platform. Many SaaS providers allow a wide range of customization within a basic set of functions.
A specialized software provider can target global markets. A company that made software for human resource management at boutique hotels might once have had a hard time finding enough of a market to sell its applications. But a hosted application can instantly reach the entire market, making specialization within a vertical market not only possible, but preferable. This in turn means SaaS providers can often deliver products that meet specific market needs better than traditional "shrinkwrap" applications.
Web systems demonstrate reliability. Despite sporadic outages and slow-downs, most people are willing to use the public Internet, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol and the TCP/IP stack to deliver business functions to end users.
Security is sufficiently well trusted and transparent. With the broad adoption of SSL, organizations have a way of reaching their applications without the complexity and burden of end-user configurations or VPNs.
Enablement technology (tools, libraries, etc,) is available. According to IDC, organizations developing enablement technology that allow other vendors to quickly build SaaS applications will play an important role in driving the adoption of SaaS. Because of SaaS' relative infancy, many companies have either built enablement tools or platforms or are in the process of engineering enablement tools or platforms. A Saugatuck study shows the industry will most likely converge to three or four enablers that will act as SaaS Integration Platforms (SIPs).
Wide-area network bandwidth has grown drastically, following Moore's Law (more than 100% increase each 24 months), and is about to reach slow local networks bandwidths. Added to network quality improvement, this has driven people and companies to trustfully access remote locations and applications with low latencies and acceptable speeds.
SaaS has "democratized" software, allowing small and medium businesses to access functionality formerly the domain of large enterprises. Many analytical software tools have been released as SaaS applications on a monthly subscription basis.
SaaS facilitates data aggregation. Instead of collecting data from multiple data sources with different database schemas, all data for all customers is stored in a single database schema (i.e., multi-tenant). This simplifies running queries across customers, mining data, and looking for trends.
The rise of third-party SaaS data escrow services has reduced some security concerns by allowing application data to be held with an independent third party.
A traditional rationale for outsourcing IT systems involves applying economies of scale to application operation, i.e., an outside service provider can offer better, cheaper, more reliable applications. SaaS-based application use has grown dramatically. A Gartner survey in July 2009 found that customers are "somewhat satisfied". Several important changes to the way people work have facilitated this rapid acceptance:
Fast, low-cost broadband is available.
Computers have become widespread—most information workers have at least basic computer skills.
Computing has become a commodity. In the past, corporate mainframes were jealously guarded as strategic advantages. More recently, applications were viewed as strategic. Today, people know it’s the business processes and the data itself (customer records, workflows, pricing information) that matters. Computing and application licenses are cost centers, and as such, they’re suitable for cost reduction and outsourcing. The adoption of SaaS could also drive Internet-scale to become a commodity.
Insourcing IT systems requires expensive overhead including salaries, health care, liability, and physical building space.
Applications have tended to standardize. With notable, industry-specific exceptions, most people spend most of their time using standardized applications.[citation needed] An expense-reporting page, an applicant screening tool, a spreadsheet, or an e-mail system are all sufficiently ubiquitous and well understood that most users can switch from one system to another easily. This is evident from the number of web-based calendaring, spreadsheet, and e-mail systems that have emerged in recent years.
Parametric applications are usable. In older applications, one could often only change a workflow by modifying the code. In more recent applications, particularly web-based ones, significantly new applications can be created from parameters and macros. This allows organizations to create different kinds of business logic on a common application platform. Many SaaS providers allow a wide range of customization within a basic set of functions.
A specialized software provider can target global markets. A company that made software for human resource management at boutique hotels might once have had a hard time finding enough of a market to sell its applications. But a hosted application can instantly reach the entire market, making specialization within a vertical market not only possible, but preferable. This in turn means SaaS providers can often deliver products that meet specific market needs better than traditional "shrinkwrap" applications.
Web systems demonstrate reliability. Despite sporadic outages and slow-downs, most people are willing to use the public Internet, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol and the TCP/IP stack to deliver business functions to end users.
Security is sufficiently well trusted and transparent. With the broad adoption of SSL, organizations have a way of reaching their applications without the complexity and burden of end-user configurations or VPNs.
Enablement technology (tools, libraries, etc,) is available. According to IDC, organizations developing enablement technology that allow other vendors to quickly build SaaS applications will play an important role in driving the adoption of SaaS. Because of SaaS' relative infancy, many companies have either built enablement tools or platforms or are in the process of engineering enablement tools or platforms. A Saugatuck study shows the industry will most likely converge to three or four enablers that will act as SaaS Integration Platforms (SIPs).
Wide-area network bandwidth has grown drastically, following Moore's Law (more than 100% increase each 24 months), and is about to reach slow local networks bandwidths. Added to network quality improvement, this has driven people and companies to trustfully access remote locations and applications with low latencies and acceptable speeds.
SaaS has "democratized" software, allowing small and medium businesses to access functionality formerly the domain of large enterprises. Many analytical software tools have been released as SaaS applications on a monthly subscription basis.
SaaS facilitates data aggregation. Instead of collecting data from multiple data sources with different database schemas, all data for all customers is stored in a single database schema (i.e., multi-tenant). This simplifies running queries across customers, mining data, and looking for trends.
The rise of third-party SaaS data escrow services has reduced some security concerns by allowing application data to be held with an independent third party.
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