To data center utopia

Utility computing initiatives dominate product road maps, but so far no one vendor has delivered fully on the technology's promise.

They might use different buzzwords - adaptive, organic, on-demand - but just about every management, systems, server and storage vendor is focused on the same thing: bringing enterprise companies to data center nirvana.

In this glorious state, generally known as utility computing, hardware never would be over-provisioned, problem solving would be handled proactively rather than reactively, and minimal labor would be required to roll out new applications, provision servers and support users. Utility computing products run the gamut, from server and storage virtualization, vulnerability assessment, middleware integration and business process modeling to the umbrella of automated management. And vendors pitching the idea are as varied as IBM, Microsoft and Veritas Software.

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Four tenets of utility computing Strategic approaches The implementation challenge What to ask your utility computing vendors

They might use different buzzwords - adaptive, organic, on-demand - but just about every management, systems, server and storage vendor is focused on the same thing: bringing enterprise companies to data center nirvana.

In this glorious state, generally known as utility computing, hardware never would be over-provisioned, problem solving would be handled proactively rather than reactively, and minimal labor would be required to roll out new applications, provision servers and support users. Utility computing products run the gamut, from server and storage virtualization, vulnerability assessment, middleware integration and business process modeling to the umbrella of automated management. And vendors pitching the idea are as varied as IBM, Microsoft and Veritas Software.

But utility computing products still are immature, with no suite from a single vendor capable of delivering on the overall promise. Industry watchers don't expect to see data centers running entirely on the utility computing model for at least three to five years, and some say seven to 10 years is a more realistic expectation.

That leaves users to toy around with early products that provide some utility computing functions while closely watching developments and wondering if everything eventually will gel, as vendors propose it will. For example, at WeightWatchers.com, IT is automating server management and provisioning, but isn't adopting a utility computing model outright, says Mark McNamara, IT director at the New York company. "All the utility computing hype from the big hardware vendors is focused on virtualization. But the biggest challenge is managing the variety, complexity and frequency of change inherent to a multivendor infrastructure," he says.

Toward that end, WeightWatchers.com six months ago rolled out BladeLogic Operations Manager software to track configurations and changes across about 300 Compaq/HP servers in three data centers. "We need the ability to make any type of change across multiple platforms [by using administrators with] various skill levels, and we need a smooth migration path to get there," he says.

Four tenets of utility computing

McNamara touches on utility computing's must-haves. Vendors, analysts and corporate IT managers mostly agree that utility computing requires management and other technologies that centralize, integrate, virtualize and automate the IT infrastructure and the applications running on it. For enterprise data-center managers, this means rethinking the traditional approach to data-center management.

Adopting a utility computing model would require corporate IT departments to eliminate the network and systems management silos and standardize on integrated, automated management tools. They would need to bring in technologies that can provide centralized management, seamless integration across platforms, virtualized pools of network, server and storage resources, and intelligent automation that eliminates the need for hands-on management.