Utilit-e Central
Application Service Providers (ASP’s) could be compared to what some might remember back in the 70’s or 80’s when service bureaus were common and where many utilities operated from the large mainframe. The next generation in the 90’s installed in-house systems and migrated their operation from remote to internal to the utility. And now, “what goes around, comes around” with many of today’s software vendors and computer firms are transforming themselves into what is called Application Service Providers (ASP’s) which is sometimes called a hosting center.
ASP’s are a return to centralized computing. In the 70’s the mainframe was located many states away. In the 90’s was the advent of the personal computer. Computing power increased in capacity in the 90’s while cost and size continued to get smaller. ASP’s are built on the trend of providing complex computing power at a reasonable price.
The ASP provides an application or applications from a remote server then distributes these applications to the utility over a high speed connection such as the Internet or dedicated communication line. These applications then operate from a browser or other thin client connection. The important note is that technology has improved in recent years that the person using the application seldom notices the difference if the application is run local and/or remote. PCS is proud of being a leader in providing this leading innovation for the clients and end users of PCS applications.
