Tom after Richard...

> For e-services users, the hardware on which the services run are unknown
> and don't matter.  I think hardware-centric shows will target e-services
> developers and providers, not e-services users.

Actually it is - the vendor (and customer) will know that it's an HP3000, or
Netserver, or UX box.  For our software (the customer we're dealing with now),
the HP3000 that HP utilizes will need to be known by HPSUSAN, HPCPUNAME and
HPUSERLIMIT as to accomodate our licensing mechanisms.

In addition, vendors will need some level of access to their software on the HP
systems used should HP host, so as to control their software should it need
support.

The customer should probably not need to know what model of HP3000 is being
used, so long as it serves their needs (and sized appropriately).  The vendor
needs to know what's running their software so that licensing can be enforced.
Just because it's HP hosting the application does not negate licensing terms,
unless negotiated in advance.  For example:  even though our software might be
hosted on an HP-owned system, we must be able to block other uses of our
comodity software (and we have the capability to do so) so that only our
applications use it - again, unless negotiated in advance with HP.


> >  Besides, I think IT managers should and will continue to plan an
> >important consulting role in the decision making process.  It may not
> >always be recognized, but at the current level of the
> technology, IT still
> >has an important contribution to make in successful business use of
> >e-services.
>
> I agree completely with that, and I should have made that more clear.

Absolutely - Hosted/use on demand/pay per transaction (apps-on-tap) is one of
many distribution methods.  For some applications, it makes perfect sense.  For
some, it makes no sense at all.  We will be looking at these distribution
methods for each customer on a case-by-case basis.  If a customer demands
apps-on-tap, there is little we can do to stop that if it dosen't make sense.
OTOH, for our application, it would make sense in many cases.

(Disclaimer here:  When I refer to Apps-On-Tap - I don't necessarily mean HP
hosting only.  I do believe that it might be a trademark, but we will also
offer our own hosting services that are similar.  If this makes more sense, or
the customer would rather we handle it, we will do it)

Cheers,
Joe (break over - back to shampooing the carpet :)