Delivering the Foundation for Software Vendors and Service Providers to Deliver Hosted Applications
- More information about Cisco's Hosted Applications Initiative
- See Related Release: Cisco and Service Providers Expand Range of New World Internet Services
- See Related Release: Cisco and Software Vendors Team Up
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- April 26, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced an initiative to provide small and medium-sized businesses with access to powerful applications that were previously beyond their reach. The Cisco Hosted Applications initiative creates an emerging ecosystem of software application vendors, service providers, system integrators, and technology partners, including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, KPMG, Sprint, and Citrix, to deliver a variety of hosted business applications.
Internet-hosted applications are maintained through a variety of emerging Application Service Providers (ASPs) and deployed remotely to customers over the Internet using Cisco intelligent networking solutions.
Wide-scale application hosting across the Internet demands an intelligent, end-to-end network infrastructure to satisfy customer expectations for integration, reliability, security, and performance. Hosted application services that are Cisco Powered Network certified are based on the same industry-leading platforms and Cisco IOS. software that small and medium-sized businesses trust.
Hosted applications are particularly key for companies that wish to participate in the Internet economy. Internet hosted applications require less time, money, and internal technical support to deploy, and can be easily scaled to meet business growth, giving businesses of all sizes an alternative to purchasing, deploying, and managing complex software applications internally. Companies gain direct access to expertise from the service provider or application vendor and are freed to focus on their core competencies. "Cisco, together with more than 20 Hosted Application Initiative participants, will enable small and medium-sized businesses to enjoy robust applications previously unavailable to them," said Don Listwin, executive vice president, Cisco.
Application vendors, service providers, system integrators, and technology partners participating in the hosted applications initiative include leading providers of software, services, and technology.
Application Vendors
By offering hosted applications, participating application vendors will have an opportunity to gain access to a new market and new method of distribution for their products. "Cisco's Hosted Application initiative enables small to medium-sized customers an opportunity to outsource key horizontal businesses services based on a range of Microsoft products such as Windows NT Server, SQL Server, Site Server Commerce Edition, Microsoft Exchange and other BackOffice products," said Thomas Koll, vice president, Internet Customer Unit at Microsoft. "Through work with Cisco, customers can outsource this service through application service providers over a reliable, high-performance, secure Cisco network infrastructure that allows businesses to have a complete end-to-end service that tightly integrates the network and the applications."Service Providers
Hosted applications open a New World business opportunity for application service providers who stand to gain significant revenue and new customers through hosted application services. Providing outsourced applications is a natural extension to Internet-based and virtual private network services, enabling providers to move up the value chain and partner with their customers. According to International Data Corporation, the application service provider market is expected to grow to more than $2 billion by 2003."The Internet economy is about businesses creating instantaneous information flow among important business communities to better serve the needs of customers and create a business advantage," said Sue Sentell, president of Business Marketing and Operations, Sprint. "We're excited to bring our best-in-class Internet solutions and Sprint ION to this alliance to create affordable and more efficient business applications to users of all sizes as we help businesses build truly integrated electronic business communities."
"At Cisco, we believe hosted applications are key enablers of a business's success--regardless of their size--in the emerging Internet economy," added Listwin of Cisco. "We are excited to have Sprint participate as a primary service provider in this initiative."
In addition to Sprint, Cisco will be working with other service providers to support this initiative, including PSINet Inc. and GTE.
"PSINet builds IT infrastructure relationships with partners that share our vision to bring unique and innovative business services to the global market," said Michael Mael, vice president, Applications and Web Services for PSINet Inc. "Our focus for several years has been to expedite the growth of businesses by making application and Web hosting our job, so that our clients can concentrate on their business models. This initiative with Cisco helps build on our global hosting solutions and further strengthens customer confidence in running mission-critical applications for businesses seeking to outsource their Internet capabilities. This is critical as PSINet continues to improve its industry-leading business Internet services such as hosting, commerce, enterprise connectivity, security, and applications," Mael added.
"GTE is committed to providing secure and reliable hosted applications that offer a significant competitive advantage for all of our customers," said Laura Heinrich, Director, E-commerce Product Management for GTE. "By providing the infrastructure, technology, and expertise to enable e-business, our customers gain speed-to-market and can focus on their core competencies. The benefits of hosting applications speak directly to the long-term, bottom-line success of any forward-thinking enterprise."
Systems Integrators
Hosted applications provide an emerging opportunity for service providers to form closer relationships with their enterprise clients. "The hosted applications market will revolutionize our business model in the near future," said Phil Garland, Partner in Charge of KPMG's Application Outsourcing, another Cisco hosted applications alliance participant. "Our realization of this potential will come via support from KPMG and the Cisco intelligent Internet infrastructure."Technology Providers
Technology providers offer a critical element in delivering on the promise of the intelligent Internet infrastructure enabled by Cisco. A Cisco Powered Network provides the intelligence to support quality of service and security required to deploy sophisticated hosted applications. Among the technology partners working with Cisco is Hewlett-Packard Company. "Hosted applications represent an important and much needed new generation of network solutions for small and medium-sized businesses," said Nigel Ball, general manager of HP's E-Services Division. "Together Cisco and HP are developing the end-to-end intelligent Internet infrastructure to unlock the power of hosted applications."Another Cisco technology partner is Citrix, which develops server-based computing technology enabling fast, reliable application access for extended enterprises. "For the emerging ASP market to deliver high-performance service levels across WANs, virtual private networks (VPNs) and the public Internet, a new level of innovation is required. This is the purpose of our collaboration with Cisco, underscoring our mutual commitment to deliver quality solutions to ASPs and their customers," said Traver Gruen-Kennedy, director of advanced business development for Citrix.
Small and growing businesses in particular can take advantage of technology through hosted applications hosted by service providers or co-location providers. Working through resellers participating in Cisco's recently announced Resource Network for Growing Businesses, smaller companies will be able to remotely deploy a variety of powerful applications.
As part of the Hosted Applications Initiative, Cisco and participating software vendors have established a joint development lab that will match application vendors with service providers to ensure that applications run efficiently across the intelligent Cisco Internet infrastructure. Participating vendors include AboveNet Communications, Breakaway Solutions, Broadvision, Citrix, Click2Send, eCompany Network, Employease, Enron, Exodus Communications, FutureLink, Great Plains, GTE, Hewlett Packard, IBM, KPMG, Microsoft, OpenMarket, PeopleSoft, PSINet Inc., Sequent, Software.com, Sprint, United Messaging, USinternetworking, USWeb and U S West.
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.
