The utility computing promise
Tapping into computing resources on an as-needed basis has plenty of benefits for enterprises -- but success depends on maturity of foundation technologies
Follow @infoworldTapping into compute resources with a simplicity equal to plugging a lamp into an outlet has been a goal of pervasive computing efforts from the start. Known as utility computing, the idea is to provide unlimited computing power and storage capacity that can be used and reallocated for any application -- and billed on a pay-per-use basis.
Already present in a variety of capacity-based pricing models, utility computing is poised to expand throughout the enterprise as various key technologies -- such as Web services, grid computing, and provisioning -- intersect. Growth of utility computing in the enterprise will deliver to the industry not only equal access to supercomputing resources, but also new revenue streams for commercial data centers, new application pricing models based on metered use, and an open computing infrastructure for companies with little or no standing IT maintenance budget.
"Companies can begin to look at computing as a utility right now by virtue of the fact that utilitylike services are already available to them, including capacity-based pricing models for overhead infrastructure that is placed onsite," explains Bill Martorelli, vice president of enterprise services at Hurwitz Group in Framingham, Mass.
Martorelli points to the wide range of utilitylike service offerings from companies such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, and Compaq, in which additional servers, storage devices, and printers are placed on site with customers. The customer is charged for the gear only when it is turned on and used.
As something of a first step toward the vision of utility computing, IBM recently penned a $4 billion deal with American Express to provide all of the financial service company's technology infrastructure as a utility, managed and maintained by IBM. American Express expects to save hundreds of millions of dollars during the life of the seven-year contract.
Dev Mukherjee, vice president of strategy for e-business on demand at IBM in Armonk, N.Y., says that for American Express, Big Blue's compute utility service is "less a technology thought than a liberating thought," and that the American Express deal is only the beginning of an industrywide trend.
"I would describe utility computing as a wholesale shift in the computing industry," Mukherjee says.
"We are moving to where we will have a gridlike compute environment where all these capabilities -- whether they are infrastructure capabilities like storage or databases or special equipment that allows you to do vector processing -- will all be available in the grid, and anything a customer needs they will be able to get on demand across the grid," Mukherjee adds.
Ingredients in the mix
Utility computing on a global scale will require the continued evolution and convergence of core technologies spanning Web services, grid computing, broadband, storage virtualization, automatic provisioning, change management, and security.
Martorelli says early utility computing efforts, such as the American Express/IBM relationship, will begin as in-house projects and follow the same pattern of emergence as the core technologies.
Jeff Gilliam, West Coast region president of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in San Ramon, Calif., says he is beginning to see increased demand for utilitylike computing technologies inside companies struggling to cut IT costs and consolidate resources.
