NaviSite Unveils ASP Program

NaviSite, a majority-owned CMGI company, today plans to announce its entry into the application service provider space by unveiling a bundle of services at Fall Internet World in New York.

NaviSite's move underscores a mass entry of dedicated Web hosters into the application service provider market. Exodus Communications has announced a number of ASP services. Frontier GlobalCenter is close to make a similar announcement. And Digex, PSINet and UUnet have been looking to sell ASP-like services for more than half a year now.

"What NaviSite offers is a potential to head in the direction that we are not exploring right now," said Greg Phillips, chief technology officer and co-founder of Informative, NaviSite's first ASP customer. "Having great uptime is just a starting point for both of us; we have the skill and capacity to handle applications like ours. What we are looking for right now is a lot of co-marketing and joint promotions."

Currently operating two data centers, Andover, Mass.-based NaviSite plans to build two more in an attempt to persuade other companies to outsource management of their facilities and applications back end. Using NaviSite's ASP services costs between $1,000 and $2,000 per month.