Utility Computing using Web Services
That's what utility computing will be like — much more like a grid of interlinked resources than a single outsourced data center. Though in terms of complexity, it will be more akin to the telecoms network, which carries many different forms of traffic and services, than the homogenized electricity grid. That's appropriate, of course, because it already runs on top of the telecoms network — the difference being that the utility computing grid will run at the level of applications infrastructure instead of down on the wire.
Adopting utility computing isn't going to be an either-or proposition. Most companies will start with selected services that meet particular needs. In some cases, just as householders in California today can generate their own solar power and sell it back to the grid, some customers will double-up as providers, offering resources where they have special skills or excess capacity. Naturally, all these arrangements will depend on a robust set of standards that guarantee interoperability, which is why it is so important to reach industry-wide agreement on the Web services stack
With the emergence of this universal computing grid, there will be a need for a new breed of utility provider. Although companies and individuals will retain some local computing capabilities, there will be a growing opportunity for trusted neutral parties to operate and manage shared resources within the grid. This is a role that telecoms and hosting providers are well-suited to fulfill, but few have gone beyond the simplistic vision of outsourcing existing computing assets to a shared location.
Last week, U.K.-based telecoms carrier BT became one of the first to show it has grasped what the role of a utility provider needs to be in the Web services era. It announced a portfolio of hosted Web services offerings that fill the layers in between Internet infrastructure and business functionality, These new layers of application infrastructure will form the core of the utility computing grid.
http://www.aspnews.com/analysis/analyst_cols/article/0,2350,9921_1473711,00.html
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