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05 Nov 2003
SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services (Platform)
Marc Canter discusses this new platform from Microsoft. It seems to be a server based platform, that can be used for creating reports from SQL-databases (or only SQL-server?). He suggests that Microsoft will offer this platform in the form of an online service, which he calls an online service oriented application.
I see no evidence that Microsoft will do so. I get the impression that Microsoft will allow other parties to act as service provider for this platform. These parties then act then as Application Service Provider (no need for a new name). I categorise these kind of services as Application IT Services. IT Services are very general services. I still do not like the word application together with the word service. Applications refer to software that run locally on your PC (the client). These Client Applications offer a service once you run the software. In contrast Server Applications run somewhere on the company network (the Intranet). If the application runs somewhere outside the network at an external party, then we talk about an Application Service. And the party that offers this Application Service, is the Application Service Provider.
I am still not sure what makes an Application Service different from other Online Services, such as an Teleshopping service. There is the difference between users and customer. For a Tele-shopping service there is a one-one relation. For an Applications Service there might be one customer (the company) and many users (the employees). Another difference might be that the application that is used to deploy the service, is the same whether it is a used as a Client Application, a Server Application or an Application Service. Thus many ingredients (the Enabling Processes) that are needed in order to offer the Application as a Service are missing in the Application. What also can be different is the responsibility for the functionality. An Application Service provider can not be held responsible for the functionality that the Application offers. If Microsoft would offer the Reporting Service themselves this would be different. I would call them then a Reporting Database IT Provider and not an Application Provider.
What is the definition of a Platform by the way?