Novell eyes off ASPs
Novell has bolstered its move toward the ASP market with the release of Novell OnDemand Services, software that lets companies host content or services and charge for access.
To provide a hosting solution, Novell can combine the package with their caching technology as well as with iChain security and e-business services and a front-end piece such as Novell's planned NDS Web portal, code-named Blackhawk, Novell executives said.
The release of OnDemand marks the first venture into a consumption or subscription-based pricing model for Novell. Customers will be charged based on the number of users subscribing to the service times a monthly fee; currently, pricing is $1.10 per user per month. A second OnDemand release, OnDemand 1.5, will emerge within the next few months, with the addition of more partner technologies atop the OnDemand foundation and further access enhancements, including more identity capabilities.
UUNet goes Latino
UUNet has announced plans to extend its global presence to Latin America by moving into the highly competitive Latin American ISP market.
UUNet is entering a highly competitive market where consolidation has already started and is expected to continue during the coming years, as the strongest providers gobble up or squash their competitors. Some of the biggest names playing in the market include Spain's Terra Networks SA, PSINet, IFX, America Online, Argentina's Ciudad Internet, México's Telefónos de México/Prodigy and Brazil's UOL.
UUNet plans to focus on the corporate market, and this could help it avoid having to deal with the price pressures being brought about by free access, which is mostly an issue in the consumer space.
Manufacturer Web sites achieve high hitsA new report from Forrester Research, The Manufacturer Growth Spiral, has found that consumers expect a lot from manufacturer Web sites. In fact, consumers are using such sites in order to source product information and competitive prices.
Forrester believes that by 2004, 50 million US shoppers will visit manufacturer sites to make a purchase. The report found that 62 per cent of online consumers visit manufacturer's Web sites at every stage of the purchasing process.
Forrester found that the sites are proving popular as consumers believe they will receive good post-purchase support on the manufacturer sites.
