InformationWeek

Until recently, the Web was like a sentence without verbs. Its portals and search engines provide an astounding vocabulary, but one full of nouns--content about every imaginable subject. The Web is only now starting to deliver verbs, in the form of online applications. With Web apps, you can actually do things within the Web browser, not just read about them.

Browse-and-run applications let you do almost anything you could do with shrink-wrapped software. Web apps for business include calendars, office suites, Web-page and graphic-development tools, and virtual desktops. The growing range of online business solutions embraces enterprise resource planning, sales management, accounting, database management, and more.

As with conventional software, Web applications reach beyond the workplace. Games, personal-finance tools, and learning and lifestyle apps are among the most popular. Some Web apps emulate hardware as well as software. For example, there are virtual disk drives that let you store data files on remote servers, and Web fax tools that let you send and receive facsimiles via the Internet in lieu of using a fax machine or a fax modem.

It's important to note that Web apps aren't downloads, although a few use downloaded helper components. Web applications offer an alternative to downloading or buying apps on a CD-ROM. You simply browse to them. In most cases, Web apps don't require any sort of installation, unlike conventional CD-ROM apps and downloadable shareware. "Pure" Web apps, which harness the native capabilities of the browser, spare you the headaches of executable software: configuration problems (aka "DLL hell"), user-managed upgrades, location-and platform-dependence, and viruses.

Using applications hosted at third-party sites can be a cost-effective alternative or complement to hosting apps within your company's IT infrastructure. "Speed and expense were the two big things," says Arnold Kraft, president and CEO of e-Wood.com Inc., about his company's decision to use an externally hosted human-resources application.

HR Logic provided e-Wood.com--an Internet marketplace--with a Web-accessible, outsourced solution to its HR and payroll needs. "We got the functionality we needed in less than two weeks, at a very reasonable price, and we didn't have to hire staff or buy equipment," Kraft says. Given e-Wood.com's success at outsourcing its HR system, Kraft is considering additional Web-based apps, such as data storage and backup services.

Web apps represent the marriage of software and the Web. You run them within the browser by navigating to the site where the app is hosted.

There are two types of Web apps: those that are ready to run and those hosted by application service providers. You use ready-to-run apps by browsing to them. Many are supported by advertising and therefore are free to use, while some charge only for the use of higher-end features or for large volumes of data.

ASPs host sophisticated business applications, generally on a subscription or transaction-fee basis. With ASPs, you start by creating a corporate account--and possibly doing some customization steps--before granting access to your company's users.

Web apps use some combination of the following technologies:

• HTML or DHTML. Web apps typically use the intrinsic capabilities of the browser--forms, scripts, etc.--to provide interactive features.
• Client-side Java, which is included in the standard configuration of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
• Custom client-side components, such as plug-ins that extend browser functionality. Most Web apps don't require you to install executables, but some do--especially apps that are slimmer equivalents of large-footprint client apps, such as some Web-based word processors, spreadsheets, and virtual desktops.
  For these apps, classic software considerations such as platform compatibility apply. But these Web-enabled apps may also offer advantages over conventional software, such as remote data storage and the reduction of hardware requirements.

• Popular browser plug-ins, such as Macromedia Inc.'s Shockwave and Flash. Typically associated with entertainment apps and animations, these provide a handy cross-platform and cross-browser environment for highly interactive apps of any kind. The Shockwave and Flash plug-ins are periodically updated, so users may be prompted to install the latest versions. Additionally, some Shockwave apps will ask you to install executable "Xtras," which you'll want to evaluate before using as you would any installable component.
• Streaming or terminal services. Vendors such as Into Networks Inc. provide terminal-style access to client-side applications. The applications are hosted on remote, high-performance PCs and typically require high-speed connections. This model is an alternative to porting applications to versions that truly execute in the browser.

• More than 100 million people use Web browsers, and the number is growing rapidly.
• Almost everybody who uses a PC, as well as many of those who use non-PC computing devices, uses application software.
• How many people would prefer inexpensive or even free apps that run without installation from any machine with Web access?

Further legitimizing business use of online messaging is the availability of Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes hosting services. These services, available from several ASPs, let companies--particularly small businesses--use the leading messaging and collaboration technologies without investing in the IT resources to configure and maintain them in-house.

These services are typically fee-based rather than ad-supported. Small-business IT managers will want to evaluate the value-add capabilities of full-function corporate-messaging and collaboration ASPs vs. the free-ride options from Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Email.com, and others.

continued...page 2