Jamcracker Adds Services From Epicentric, VitriaJamcracker Adds Services From Epicentric, Vitria

Web services provider Jamcracker Inc. plans to offer information portal services from Epicentric Inc. and application-integration services from Vitria Technology Inc. within Jamcracker's existing IT-management platform.

Jamcracker's platform is a Web-based framework that pulls together hosted apps from various application service providers into a single portal, allowing it to provide its customers with consolidated monitoring, management, and support for service-level agreements. Epicentric will create a more customizable portal interface between users and their applications. Vitria will provide standard application-integration components that Jamcracker can use and reuse to rapidly get customers up and running on the portals created from Epicentric technology.

Many analysts say the only successful way to provide hosted applications is to package multiple apps together and deliver them through a secure, customized Web-based portal. This model evolved from the previous ASP model of offering a single hosted application that's managed by a separate service provider, with little integration between applications.

Eric Goodness, Gartner's principal analyst for network and Internet services, says Jamcracker is creating a "services value chain" that unites service providers under a single framework and creates efficiencies for their customers. Through its partnerships with Epicentric and Vitria, Jamcracker is further extending its reach in the services value chain, he says.

John Madden, industry analyst with Summit Strategies, agrees, adding that Jamcracker's growth as an application and services aggregator made it successful even as several independent ASPs fell by the wayside. Jamcracker has more than 100 clients and is in the process of raising its fourth round of funding.