Compare ISPs, OSPs and ASPs. Be sure to include an overview of common services provided by each.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

There are three common forms of service providers including: Internet service provider (ISP) - a company
that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet along with additional related services,
such as Web site building. Many but not all ISPs are telephone companies. ISPs provide services such as
Internet transit, domain name registration and hosting, dial-up or DSL access, leased line access and
collocation. ISPs mostly provide access to the Internet and charge a monthly access fee to the consumer.
Online service provider (OSP) - offers an extensive array of unique services such as its own version of a
Web browser. An OSP offers services such as access to private computer networks and information
resources such a bulletin boards, downloadable programs, news articles, chat rooms and electronic mail
services. Application service provider (ASP) - a company that offers an organization access over the
Internet to systems and related services that would otherwise have to be located in personal or
organizational computers. Software offered using an ASP model is also sometimes called On-demand
software. The most limited sense of this business is that of providing access to a particular application
program (such as medical billing) using a standard protocol such as HTTP. The need for ASPs has
evolved from the increasing costs of specialized software that have far exceeded the price range of small
to medium sized businesses. As well, the growing complexities of software have lead to huge costs in
distributing the software to end-users. Through ASPs, the complexities and costs of such software can be
cut down. In addition, the issues of upgrading have been eliminated from the end-firm by placing the onus
on the ASP to maintain up-to-date service.