Apptix updates auto provisioning platform

Apptix, a spinoff of application service provider TeleComputing, this week is unveiling upgrades to its automated provisioning platform to make it easier for service providers to offer applications on demand.

The updates to Apptix's TECOS 4.0 platform include tighter integration with Microsoft .Net so that Microsoft applications can be more easily added to the Microsoft Provisioning System framework. The upgrades also include centralized management for a wider range of implementations so that service providers can deliver applications not only from a shared infrastructure, but also from dedicated servers, as well as customer premise installments.

TECOS is the platform used by ASP TeleComputing to deliver software as a service. Last year, TeleComputing, which was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 1997 and still operates as an ASP in Europe, spun off Apptix in the U.S. so it could focus on enabling service providers to become ASPs. Since then, Apptix has struck up partnerships with Microsoft and HP and has customers that include Digex and XO Communications.

With TECOS, Apptix offers an operations support system platform that service providers can use to manage billing and other business processes associated with the delivery of hosted applications. Applications are delivered through portals branded by the service provider. TECOS enables service providers to roll out a hosted application in as little as 30 days and avoid the high up-front costs they would incur if they had to build a provisioning platform themselves, Apptix executives say.

TECOS 4.0 gives service providers more flexibility in how they manage and deliver applications because of its tighter integration with Microsoft provisioning and Web services, says Alex Hawkinson, Apptix CEO. A service provider can manage a dedicated deployment and a shared deployment all from a single management interface, he says. In addition, because TECOS 4.0 is fully integrated with the Microsoft’s provisioning system, service providers can more easily customize how applications are delivered.

That's a big reason why Digex chose Apptix to provide the framework for delivering its hosted Microsoft Exchange service.