EPiCON: Infrastructure for Application Hosting

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EPiCONInfrastructure for Application Hosting

• May 31, 2000

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Agenda

• Company Background
• The Market
• Toward the Total Service Provider
• The Role of EPiCONs Technology
• Discussion
• Appendix ALTiS ASP Technology Overview

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EPiCON Company Background

• Based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts
• Approximately 60 employees
• Founded in 1997
• Prominent angel investors
• Venture capital funding from Prism Venture
  Partners, Egan Managed Capital (EMC) and TGF
  Investments
• Strategic investment (Nortel Networks)
• Technology An innovative software platform that
  allows service providers to deliver and manage
  applications as services over the Internet

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EPiCON and the Next Generation ASP
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EPiCON and the Next Generation ASP

• Todays Application Service Providers will
  evolve into Total Service Providers
• These companies will be compelled to manage
  desktops as well as servers and networks
• EPiCON provides technology to manage the desktop
  side of hosted applications and provide
  Application Quality of Service (AQoS)
• This is a vital component of a complete ASP
  infrastructure

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The Market Opportunity

• Compelling need for advanced technology
• Implemented quickly at low cost
• Without expensive staff
• ADP for all IT

The Paradigm Shift Transform products into
services that can be managed over a common
network infrastructure
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Forces Affecting Hosting Companies

• Broadband

• Customer Demands
• Single source for multiple technologies and
  services
• Quality-of-service guarantees

• Business Drivers
• Scale to thousands of users
• Provide competitive differentiation
• Add value to commodity networking

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The Network-Managed Small Business

• The vision One source, one contract, one bill,
  one support contact, one pipe

• Everything managed over the network

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Technology Acquisition Today
The paradigm shift begins Some applications
delivered as services
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Toward The Total Service Provider
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ALTiS ASP for End-to-End Management
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ALTiS ASP

• Deploy and manage desktop applications and
  application components
• Thin client environments--deploy and manage
  browsers, plug-ins, email clients, etc.
• Rich client environments --Deploy, install,
  update and terminate full applications
• Packaged and home-grown software
• Improve Application Quality of Service (AQoS)
• Application self-healing
• Intelligent version control

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A New Business Model
Service Provider
Customer
VAR
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Strategic Issues for ASPs

• Increase Revenues
• New value-added services
• Increased competitive differentiation
• Scale to More Users and More Applications
• Manage components on thousands of desktops
• Expand offerings with popular Windows
  applications
• Cement customer loyalty
• More choice and better service level agreements
• Reduce Support Costs
• Deploy, install, update and self-heal desktop
  applications and components quickly and easily

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Discussion
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Appendix ALTiS? ASP Technology
Overview
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ALTiS ASP

• Manage the desktop side of hosted applications
  from a central server
• Target
• Deploy
• Install
• Update
• Self-Heal
• Monitor
• Terminate
• Network-independent
• Internet (through firewalls), intranets, LAN,
  WAN, VPN

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Used by ASPs to...

• Manage the desktop components of thin client
  applications
• Browsers, plug-ins, email clients, etc.
• Deploy and manage complete thick client
  applications
• Deploy, install, update, terminate
• Packaged and home-grown applications
• Improve Application Quality of Service (AQoS)
• Application self-healing
• Intelligent version control

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Central Control

• Schedule deployments to each customer/group
• Control access and set policies by customer
• Monitor and log application usage for analysis
  and billing

Server
Firewall
LAN, WAN or Intranet
Internet
Remote Clients
Local and Remote Clients
Manage multiple customers from a central site
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Hands-Free Installation
ALTiS ADF
Application Description File
Network
Eliminate trips to desktop simple user experience
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Intelligent Version Control/Update
New version available?
Update system settings Carry forward parameters,
documents, etc. Download changed files
Network
Customers always have the right version
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Self-Healing
User still authorized for this application? Requir
ed files present and versions correct? Registry
and system settings correct? Redeploy missing
components and fix settings.
Network
Reduce support calls and improve satisfaction
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Policies and Desktop Requirements
Service Provider
Customers
Managed Desktops Thin Client Browsers
Plug-ins Email Specialized
clients Application
files Versions Icons Start menus Registry
settings File associations
Policies Access Update QoS
Application Master Copies Browsers,
plugins, email client, office, home-grown, etc.
Also intranets, LANs, WANs, VPNs
One tool to manage all application types and
policies
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Fit Client Computing

• Download and install complete application
• OR
• Download only core pieces to start, then download
  other pieces only if and when needed
• Reduce initial wait time 70-90
• Dramatically reduce bandwidth requirements

Network
Fat Client
Network
Thin Client/Fat Server
Network
Fit Client
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ALTiS Benefits for the ASP

• Increased revenue and competitive differentiation
• Speed up roll-outs and updates
• Update applications frequently
• Reduce support costs
• Improve customer service
• Use one tool to manage policies and desktop
  requirements for all applications, across all
  networks