So who made the most money in the "Gold rush",
the miners digging for the gold
or the folks who sold them the shovels?

Networking firms are looking to make a killing in the emerging software rental business.

Applications service providers, or ASPs, are expected to spend nearly $1 billion on technology in the United States this year to build their businesses, according to market research firm Cahners In-Stat Group. And the likes of network equipment providers Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems are expected to reap the benefits.

An ASP lets a business access a software program across a network, rather than running that software on a local system. The theory goes that by outsourcing a company's software needs a business does not have to worry about the overhead costs--such as network and computer administration--associated with technology.

Network equipment providers, which provide the high-speed connections that let an ASP send software across a network or the Internet, have jumped on this trend, hoping to reap a windfall.

Instead of buying and hosting software on corporate networks, communications firms and software makers are touting software rentals over the Internet as a cheap and hassle-free way to keep up with the latest in software technology.

But for the idea to be successful, equipment makers will need to upgrade networks and provide new hardware to handle the increase in Internet traffic, as more and more businesses access software over the Internet.

Is it safe to go alone in ASP market?