Marry technologies from switch maker ArrowPoint Communications with ASP NaviSite and what do you get? A way to give enterprise users the goods to manage their e-commerce and business-to-business applications the same way they manage Web site content.
The joint development deal the two US-based firms are working on calls for ArrowPoint to develop new features for the software that runs on its switches and NaviSite to offer new services that work with those feature sets. The result should be a way for users to provide better application services to their employees and the people they do business with.
NaviSite chief technology officer Peter Kirwan says his firm is looking to take the next step in solving one of the biggest problems faced by companies using applications that run over the Internet: how to provide quality-of-service agreements for companies with users around the world both inside and outside of their corporate networks.
What is clear is that in order for users to get reliable application services, ASPs and switch makers will have to find a way to deal with issues such as reliability and speed of servers and network performance in a data centre environment, says Peter Firstbrook, an analyst at US-based Meta Group.
"There are still ducks to be gotten in a row [by ASPs], but being able to provide time-sensitive applications over the Net is what ASPs need to do, "Firstbrook says. "And anything they can do to get rid of network latency is going to be good for end users."
