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By Jon Bernstein, 8 May 2000 11:47

NEWS Some of the leading players in the nascent Application Service Provider (ASP) market have conceded there are four major barriers to the success of this new model managing software. Speaking at a pre-Networld+Interop roundtable debate, Percy Kawas, CEO of network design company Netliant, said security concerns and a reluctance to be an 'ASP guinea pig' were both issues the market has to wrestle with. Additionally, he noted that there was a lack of conviction within companies that they would be able to bring applications back in-house when required Brice Clark, HP's director of strategic planning, said many IT departments were unlikely to give up the control and power deploying and managing applications in-house gave them. As a result, Clark said, "enterprises will probably look at new applications as candidates for outsourcing. It's easier. You don't have the migration problems you would have with legacy apps." However, the panellists maintained that none of these problems would stand in the way of ASP markets developing. Referring to security concerns, Novell's chief architect, Alan Murray, said: "Most service providers are using co-locations and other devices which are beyond the dreams and abilities of most corporates." Mark Terbeek, co-founder of application host Jamcracker, added: "The economies of the utility model is so compelling. It's very hard to fight the economics. And add to that the difficulty people are having finding the skilled people out there to do the job in-house." A poll of the audience found that 40 per cent believed ASPs would be widely available in five years time but predominantly used by Fortune 100 companies; 37 per cent believed ASPs would be ubiquitous in that timescale; and 23 per cent said they would be forgotten completely. The debate, entitled 'Will the ASP kill the enterprise Server?' was organised by NetEvents.