IBM's Global Services unit has launched a programme to host
applications from independent software vendors (ISVs) in its
datacentres, providing customers with access to those applications
as a service over the Internet.
Allowing customers to lease or acquire software that is hosted
outside of their premises is gaining popularity as an alternative
to having customers install and maintain software on their own
systems.
One of the benefits is that customers do not have to invest in
additional hardware for their new applications. Another plus is
that customers can offload application management tasks to the
companies that are hosting the software, often called application
service providers (ASPs).
The IBM initiative, called the Application Enablement Programme,
features two types of sales model: either IBM and the ISV go into
an account together and the ISV sells the software licence and IBM
the hosting service, or the ISV can purchase the hosting from IBM
and resell it to the customers along with the software
licence.
IBM charges ISVs a one-time fee of $100 (£63) per hour for
"enabling" one application for the programme, a process that takes
between 100 and 300 hours on average. The hosting fees, in turn,
vary widely depending on the application, the number of users and
other factors.
Once the application has been "enabled" for the programme, it can
be further customised for specific customers by the ISV or by IBM's
Business Consulting Services unit, which includes PwC Consulting,
the IT consultancy IBM recently bought for about $3.5bn.