Chapter 11. The Future of ASP

This is the last chapter of the book. It attempts to visualize the future of ASP using a very prosaic approach—asking questions. The questions are about who the future ASP customers will be, the kinds of services ASPs will offer these customers, the ASP industry and its evolution, the technologies these ASPs will use, and finally, the impact of all of this on the other members of the ASP ecosystem.

To “peek” into the future requires a choice of a predictive analysis. The analysis used here assumes that the development of ASP may be similar to that of the IT industry. Surprisingly, as the material shows, this assumption works well as it turns out that most up-to-date ASP developments truly resemble the events in the history of IT, although they are occurring at a faster pace. From there, it is easier to draw parallels for the future.

Finally, the summary at the end of the chapter is just an optimistic note proclaiming this author’s strong confidence in the bright future of ASP. The author also timidly hopes that this conviction of his becomes contagious.