Those of you who read my thin-client column or Windows 2000 Magazine Thin-Client UPDATE newsletter may recall that last time I asked how readers were using server-based computing and how they were using the column and newsletter. Response was fantastic, so I'd like to ask the same questions here: What is your interest in application service provision? How do you use this column and the Application Service Provider UPDATE newsletter (if you subscribe to it; if you don't and would like to (it's free), click here)?
I just returned from Windows 2000 Magazine's annual editorial conference where I learned the subscription numbers for the Application Service Provider UPDATE newsletter. Given the way the subscriber base has grown in just 4 months, I'd say that a lot of you are obviously interested in application service providers (ASPs). (As an aside to those who are interested in the other ASPs—Active Server Pages—you're looking in the wrong place. With the April 19 issue of the newsletter, we've changed the name to eliminate some of the confusion.) I hear from many of you, but because I'm not getting tens of thousands of emails (no, I'm not kidding) every fortnight, I know that I'm not hearing from everybody. From those who don't write as often or haven't written yet, I'd like to know what you're getting from this column and/or the newsletter. In the newsletter, what's most useful to you: the columns, the news articles, the Movers and Shakers column that profiles ASPs and ASP-related services, or the New and Improved entries? What kind of information are you looking for?
Beyond that, what drew you to investigate application service provision in the first place? Are you using it now, or just considering it? If you are using an ASP now, what problems were you trying to solve when you switched to this approach? Is it working as you'd hoped? Have you had to change the way you implemented it? Do you care which platform a particular ASP is using to maintain your applications?
In addition, what are the issues for you with remote application access? Are you most interested in the security issues associated with this model? How about ensuring uptime? Any interest in how Web-based applications compare to applications made available in a way that makes them look like the applications you'd normally run on your desktop? Something else?
This column is for you, and the Application Service Provider UPDATE is your newsletter. What do you want them to be? Drop me a line—I'd like to hear from you.
