Web and Application/SharePoint hosting is not a true "utility", like many seem to refer to our industry as. It's an evolving set of technology enablers that allow for the constant evolution of Web content and productivity applications to be developed. I can't think of any utilities that innovate at the rate that hosting companies, and the platforms that we enable for our customers, do. Both Microsoft and the open-source community continue to evolve the tools, frameworks, languages and applications that hosting customers use to develop new Web sites and applications.

Web 2.0 is here and many say Web 3.0 is here or just about to start. Web and application users around the world are becoming more sophisticated and have become accustomed to very rich interactive experiences as they interact with Web sites and Web applications. Today Web content needs to be interactive and driven by the AJAX experience. Web applications must be easy to use and engage the user. No longer will simple HTML pages and forms with frustrating validation interaction models suffice.

Yesterday I attended an event that Microsoft is sponsoring in three cities. (You may still be able to attend in Denver or Los Angeles). The massive Web 2.0 strategy that Microsoft has in place was neatly presented in a one-day event. There is no doubt, in my or the attendees' minds that Microsoft is just finishing the launch of the key technologies for the next generation of Web based experiences. Microsoft is once again re-invigorating the world of the designer and developer. The new Web 3.0 tools that they have recently launched are revolutionary. Silverlight, ASP.NET Ajax, IIS 7.0, the Expression Studio and its applications, some of recent plug-ins for Visual Studio 2005, and the pending next release of Visual Studio (code- named ORCAS), all have the potential to create a whole generation of Web sites and applications.

The toolset may just be the biggest enabler of the future. Designers and developers have always worked somewhat independently. For example, Photoshop and Visio designs and mock-ups did not always make it to a live implementation. But now with the Expression tools, all of these foundational technologies are accessible by both designers and developers, enabling them to work together. The new workflow that these tools enable between these two very different disciplines has the potential to bring about a whole new model for how Web sites and Web-based applications are developed. The beneficiaries of the results will be the Web hosting customer.

New beautiful and engaging Web sites. New beautiful and engaging Web-based applications. All to be hosted by Web hosts.

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform! Customers have been actively using SharePoint to enhance their businesses ability to collaborate, and enhance their business processes for years. WSS v3 takes the platform to the next level. If you have not looked at SharePoint in the last few years or at WSS v3, I encourage you to have a look.

This week I spoke to an Intermedia.NET Windows SharePoint Services customer. Cybernetic Learning Systems (CLS), a product technical training company, has been using Windows SharePoint services to manage consulting and training engagements with customers. They specialize in developing training for sales & marketing management, product management, and technology at global 1,000 companies. Today it is common for large corporations to bring in professionals to develop and implement a training program. CLS is also a vendor for other companies that need to supply a training component during an implementation.

If you can imagine, CLS is managing many projects and training programs for many companies at one time. One of their core uses of Windows SharePoint Services is to track projects, tasks and people. WSS is a world class, yet affordable solution that was simple to implement for the company. The templates included with SharePoint allowed CLS to quickly get started with managing their projects and clients. A SharePoint project site is a key component of each of their engagements.

They also use SharePoint to share documents with their partners and clients. Many of their clients already have intranets, however gaining access and creating a shared documents library can take a long time for a large company's IT team to set-up and create access profiles for. A secure WSS document sharing site can be created in a short time by CLS.

CLS has been an Intermedia.NET customer since the late 1990's. They have continued to evolve and grow and chose hosted Windows SharePoint services to solve a need. They told me that their core competency is training, and not managing servers and applications.

So, do you think SharePoint is a hosted application? To me, SharePoint is the ultimate SaaS platform - it's got all the core plumbing and features that are needed to build customizeable and scalable applications. With WSS v3, SharePoint has become a viable alternative. I attend the SharePoint user group meetings in NYC, and the buzz, user & developer interest and attendance is at the highest level ever!

This week I spoke to a project manager from Boyd Tamney Cross, a full service marketing firm. They produce and manage Web sites for a variety of companies, including consumer goods and business services companies. Some of the sites are developed in home grown ASP.NET based content management systems, e-commerce applications and large databases. With these home grown site and application management solutions they are able to empower their customers to update portions of their sites, product descriptions and even special offers in the e-commerce stores.

It's the little features that count. With little prompting, the customer indicated that several of the proprietary and lesser known features of the Intermedia.NET Windows hosting control panel are very helpful in the quest to efficiently manage the Web applications. Features not often found on a shared Web hosting account such as Start/Stop/Restart the Web server, the ability to add "Web server" users, each with their own unique permissions, and the ability to back up an SQL 2005 server database were all mentioned as features that are not often seen at other hosting providers.

Most hosting providers provide a control panel that is either proprietary or provided by one of the great hosting control panel vendors like cPanel, Helm, SWsoft, Ensim or others. All provide a core feature-set and have a different look and feel. All need to be continually updated for compatibility with their specific implementations, hardware & networking architecture, Web server updates, databases, security, etc. The balance between maintainability, upgradeability and differentiated feature sets will always be widely discussed and is often the cause of heated discussion.

One of the most important concepts to consider when choosing a control panel vendor or new features to add to your proprietary control panel is the feature set. Continually listening to your customers and tracking their requests will help you prioritize the ever growing list. I listen to/read every request and the more I hear customers making the same request, the more priority that item is given.