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Why Chili!Soft ASP Makes Sense for IT Management

Abstract

This white paper explains why Active Server Pages (ASP) and the ASP framework as a platform for Web applications makes sense to corporate IT management. It also explains how Chili!Soft ASP supports both the tactical needs and strategic goals of IT management.

In this white paper:

·   ASP--Meeting Industry Needs

·   Why ASP for Corporations and IT Management 

If You Know Visual Basic, You Know ASP

Get the Most Out Of Your Existing Resources

Decrease Time to Market for Your Applications

Pick a Tool, Any Tool

·   Why ASP for Corporations and IT Management

Use What You Know

Write It Once, Regardless of Platform

True Scalability

·   Conclusion

·   Company and Product Overview

About ASP

About Chili!Soft

ASP--Meeting Industry Needs

According to a recent Gartner Group report, among CIOs and IT organizations the technology that will have the most significant impact on IT between 1999 and 2003 is extranet, intranet, and Internet technology. The Web and Web applications are clearly an important part of virtually every IT group’s technology strategy.

In spite of the importance for implementing a Web infrastructure, many companies are caught in a holding pattern while searching for the right set of tools and platforms to support this strategy. Such tools and platforms need to support a variety of application types, operating systems, and databases. More importantly, these tools need to be accessible to a wide variety of developers and development skill sets.

Active Server Pages (ASP) is a technology that was originally introduced in late 1996 by Microsoft. ASP is a framework that uses simple scripting languages embedded in Web pages to tie together powerful components. Some of these powerful components are provided with ASP as in the case of database connectivity using Active Data Objects (ADO), while others can be easily custom-built by a developer. Over the past few years, ASP has become popular as a Web application platform because of its flexibility, accessibility, and growing developer community. These are some of factors that make ASP relevant to IT management.

Why ASP for Corporations and IT Management

If You Know Visual Basic, You Know ASP

One of the factors that led to Active Server Pages gaining rapid popularity was that it could be used immediately, with minimal training, by developers with Windows development skills. For example, the primary scripting language used by ASP is VBScript, a subset of the Visual Basic programming language. Fifty-three percent, or approximately three million, of the world’s professional programmers identify Visual Basic as their primary development language (Source: Power Research, 1999). It is very likely that Visual Basic is the most commonly known language in your company. Components for use within ASP pages use COM as the object model, which most Windows developers are already familiar with. COM can be developed in a wide variety of languages (C++ and Java on UNIX and Windows NT and Visual Basic, Delphi, and even Cobol on Windows NT!) Database access for ASP is accomplished using Active Data Objects (ADO), which is an extremely simple and common method of database connectivity for all different types of databases and programming languages.

Get the Most Out Of Your Existing Resources

The Active Server Pages framework is modular in its use of HTML pages, scripting languages, and ASP components. This lends itself well to a "divide-and-conquer" development strategy, where an application can be broken down into manageable pieces and assigned to developers based on their skill sets. For example, page design and creation can be assigned to employees with HTML and graphics skill sets, while complex business rules can be built into ASP components developed by relatively scarce C++ or Java developers. The application can then be scripted together by developers that are more readily available, i.e., developers knowledgeable with VBScript or JavaScript.

Decrease Time to Market for Your Applications

ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) quickly noticed the popularity of ASP in the corporate world. Along with corporations, ISVs were trying to decide how to move their existing applications to the Web. Currently, over 500 hundred ISVs are producing ASP compatible components and applications, ranging from a simple server component for sending e-mail, to a complex application for enterprise document management. This rapidly growing ASP community gives IT managers with ASP in their strategy an immense advantage in time to market for Web-based solutions.

Pick a Tool, Any Tool

The explosion in the number of ASP developers has also lead to an explosion in the number of development tools available for ASP. There are a number of ASP development tools on the market, with more on the way. Each of these tools has been targeted at different segments of the market. This is significant for IT management because it means ASP is appropriate for any type of application and any type of developer.

For example, ASP combined with Microsoft’s Visual InterDev is an excellent solution for development of complex, enterprise-wide, mission critical applications. Simultaneously, ASP combined with Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Drumbeat is ideal for departmental users learning how to publish their data to the Web. This eliminates the need for a different platform (and the training that comes with it) to serve different types of Web applications and developers. ASP allows you to use a common platform and simply change tools when necessary.

Why ASP for Corporations and IT Management

We have already discussed some of the reasons ASP has become popular as a Web application platform. But until recently, its acceptance was limited to those who were willing to run Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows NT. Chili!Soft is in business to extend the benefits of ASP to non-Microsoft operating systems and non-Microsoft Web servers. How is that relevant to IT management?

Use What You Know

With Chili!Soft ASP running on your choice of operating system, you can de-couple your selection of development tools from your selection of Web application platform. With environments such as NetDynamics, Hahtsite, or Sapphire/Web, the tools and platform are so tightly coupled that your choice of development tool dictates your choice of platform. With Chili!Soft ASP you retain control over both the operating system you use and the development environment. Chili!Soft ASP lets you use the same development tools on any operating system. Instead of using Perl on IBM-AIX, Microsoft FrontPage on Windows NT, and some other tool for Sun Solaris, IT management can deliver the appropriate tool to each type of developer, regardless of the platform for deployment.

Write It Once, Regardless of Platform

Chili!Soft ASP can be a significant factor in your organization’s transition to or from Windows NT. For example, perhaps you are migrating to Windows NT, but are concerned about scalability and stability in the near-term. You don’t want to develop and deploy your Web-based applications on your existing UNIX platforms, only to re-write them later. Chili!Soft ASP makes this type of transition seamless. Write your applications today using Chili!Soft ASP and your legacy platform, and then migrate them when it makes the most sense for your organization; your ASP applications will not require a re-write.

True Scalability

Perhaps you have a different view of Windows NT, and instead of rolling out additional Windows NT or Windows 2000 computers, you’d like to consolidate some of them onto a larger UNIX box. Chili!Soft ASP can definitely help you pursue this strategy as well. ASP applications running on several different Windows-based computers can be combined onto one, larger UNIX computer. You can also still purchase shrink-wrapped applications based on ASP, without being forced to add new Windows NT/2000 computers for deployment. Finally, Chili!Soft ASP enables you to pursue your server consolidation strategy without alienating corporate staff that has built-up valuable ASP development skills.

With ASP running on a variety of platforms, it becomes extremely easy to prototype and deploy ASP applications. For example, you can use relatively inexpensive Windows NT/2000 computers and Microsoft ASP as your development and prototyping platform. When the application is ready to deploy, Chili!Soft ASP will run the application on your more expensive and tightly controlled UNIX computer.

Conclusion

ASP is a powerful platform for developing Web-based applications. But what really makes it valuable to IT management from a tactical standpoint is how ASP reuses existing development skills. ASP is modular enough to enable developers with different skills to be productive and has a rapidly growing community of applications and components. From a strategic standpoint, ASP enables IT management to standardize on a Web application platform across the enterprise, while simultaneously supporting the long-term corporate strategy for server operating systems.

Company and Product Overview

About ASP

ASP is an open, compile-free Web application environment that combines scripting, HTML, custom server components and robust database publishing to create dynamic Web-based business applications. With ASP, developers can build browser-independent Web solutions and publish legacy databases to the Web using tools such as Microsoft’s Visual InterDev™ and FrontPage2000™, Macromedia™ Drumbeat™, NetObjects ScriptBuilder™, or Sybase™ PowerSite. ASP is widely known for accommodating developers of varying skill sets and expertise, and for allowing corporate IT managers to more effectively allocate scarce developer resources. There are more than 1,000,000 ASP developers, over 500 companies producing ASP components and applications, and approximately 25,000 public Web sites using ASP.

About Chili!Soft

Chili!Soft, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW), is a provider of enabling technologies and applications for Active Server Pages. Chili!Soft's award-winning flagship product, Chili!Soft ASP, extends the ASP framework to major Web servers and operating systems including Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, Hewlett Packard HP-UX, and Linux. Chili!Soft was incorporated in 1997 with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. For more information about the company, please visit the Chili!Soft Web site at http://www.chilisoft.com or call (425) 957-1122.

Copyright 2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Legal Notice.