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	Issue TOC Print full article Print this page Download as PDF E-Mail this URL Discuss this article Flame the author     In this article Introduction Adjustments Many Choices, Grasshopper Executive Summary Convinced? The Utility Data Center Epoll Results

Somewhere, like a distant mirage, there lies an IT utopia called the utility data center. It's a place where new projects can be implemented simply by assigning the needed memory, network bandwidth and hard-disk and processor resources. Imagine a data center dial tone, where all of these assets are measured in percent utilization of an existing pool, and the standalone server is a thing of the past.

Technology is finally making this vision a reality--HP, Sun and IBM all have ongoing

utility-computing initiatives. Although the specifics of the utility data center are still vague, it will start with consolidation of servers and storage. For example, HP is selling both storage and servers on a pay-as-you-need basis, which is one of the early business changes that need to occur before the utility data center can come to fruition.

Of course, old-timers will point to their beloved mainframes and claim that this concept isn't new. On the face of it, we agree. The difference is the unprecedented degree of freedom and flexibility the utility data center offers in the form of very granular upgrades, for example.

Data-center consolidation is the foundation of utility computing, and server consolidation is the cornerstone.