Understanding the difference between "Software as a Service" and traditional "Application Service Provider" may help you choose the right service according to your constraints:
Traditional Application Service Provider:
- Application services in a hosted data center style.
- Customer-specific applications run by one ASP.
- Expertise needed in each application.
- Service-level and financial failures.
- Customer needs for in-house expertise.
Software as a Service:
- Applications specifically designed to be hosted and delivered over the Internet to many customers.
- No need to buy the software from a third party.
- Customer specific instance of the application.
- Still economies of scale because of the simpler application scenario.
