Web services are currently most visible in the business model of so-called application service providers.

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Most such businesses can't afford the staff and hassle required to navigate a sea of local, long-distance and wireless carriers, Internet and application service providers and Web site and e-mail hosts.

FORBES: Land Grab

The reason utility computing has stayed on the shelf for the past decade or so is that the tools available to aspiring cloud providers (originally called ASPs, or application service providers) were no different than the tools available to the enterprise at the time: high-performance, scale-up hardware systems that were powerful, but expensive and inflexible.

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" They are also entitled to "competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

FORBES

In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers.

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When selecting cloud service providers, enterprises should consider the rigor and application of these fundamentals in their evaluation process. the quality of management applied to any IT environment that drives good security.

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