What is Utility Computing?
Utility computing is about providing flexible computing resources when and where they are needed. Utility computing is often referred to as ‘software-as-a-service’, ‘pay-as-you-go’, or ‘service on-demand’. With Utility computing you sign an agreement to have your technology services (such as database software) delivered on a per-user subscription basis. With a hosted application you do not have to pay for expensive hardware, IT support staff, internal system development or upgrades. These services are supported, maintained and paid for by Computility.
While utility computing often requires a cloud-like infrastructure, its focus is on the business model on which providing the computing services are based. Simply put, a utility computing service is one in which customers receive computing resources from a service provider (hardware and/or software) and “pay by the drink,” much as you do for your electric service at home – an analogy that Nicholas Carr discusses extensively in “The Big Switch.” Amazon Web Services (AWS), despite a recent outage, is the current poster child for this model as it provides a variety of services, among them the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), in which customers pay for compute resources by the hour, and Simple Storage Service (S3), for which customers pay based on storage capacity. Other utility services include Sun’s Network.com, EMC’s recently launched storage cloud service, and those offered by startups such as Joyent and Mosso. The main benefit of utility computing is better economics. Corporate data cente
Utility Computing is a concept that has both a long term and an immediate definition: In the long term, it refers to the fact that a ubiquitous IT infrastructure will deliver all our computing needs be they for business or entertainment. We would own far less computing assets than we do now but would instead pay for access to services delivered by “utility computing.” People and companies will pay for what they use and no more. Just like electricity, computing will have become a Utility. The ramifications for business are enormous. Legacy technology issues will be a thing of the past and the ability to swiftly up or downscale to meet demand will have a revolutionary affect on companies and the way in which they formulate strategy. The concept will also be applied to individual users of computing, where they no longer need to buy their own computers and do regular upgrades, but instead are offered packages like they choose their satellite television services today. At present, the infra
The folks who dream up terms for computer functions don’t have a lot of imagination sometimes. If you thought hard enough about the term utility computing, you could probably work out what it means. Utility computing is a form of computer service whereby the company providing the service charges you for how much you use it. Think of the electric company or the water company, and you’ll have it. Under this scenario, you as the consumer pay for the resources that you consume, not the resources that the utility computing provider has to provide for you to use them. In other words, you don’t pay for the hardware. Depending on how much you use computing services in a given time period, this can present either a savings or a loss. Sun was the first to offer utility computing, in 2000. Hewlett-Packard followed a year later. Other big players, including IBM, have jumped on the utility computing bandwagon in subsequent years. With such big market forces behind it, utility computing seems to be
