Is there anything real about utility computing that can be used today?

Yes, but you need to choose wisely. For example, utility is likely to prove most beneficial in situations where certain high-cost applications get used relatively infrequently. Two companies may run the same engineering package, for instance, with each needing five seats. But one company might use the package once a month, while the other runs it 24/7. For the low-use company, utility pricing would probably appeal because the company wouldn't have to pay full licence prices for a rarely used product. But the high-use company would likely do better with standard, per-user licences.

In addition, certain applications don't lend themselves well to utility. "We're not trying to replace everything out there," says Joe Heasley, CIO at industrial products manufacturer Gates. He notes that some applications - such as CAD software - simply perform better on local servers than over a wire.

But in cases where a single application can be shared among multiple groups or where applications face regular peaks and slow periods, utility could be a cost-efficient solution. From there, you need to select the proper approach for your company's situation.

Consolidation is one way to go. Last November, Gates began a move from a distributed-server environment to a centralized HP Superdome system that includes HP's Instant Capacity on Demand (iCOD) feature. With iCOD, Gates can turn on extra processors as needed (and turn them off when the load drops), at a reduced cost. "We decided that consolidation - moving to an environment that is partitionable, virtual and has workload management capabilities - gave us the ability to take that combined horsepower and wield it where we need it, instead of being shoehorned into individual machines," says Heasley. In other words, if a certain application suddenly needs more resources, the new system enables Gates to floor the accelerator and have the business respond.

The Gates project was anything but small. It involved identifying some 42 applications - and their associated hardware - that were prime for consolidation, including custom ERP applications at its Mexico-based manufacturing facilities. In fact, Gates decided to use the Superdome systems to host all of its Mexican computing resources remotely. "We were able to leverage our infrastructure here without adding infrastructure or data centres or outsourcing in Mexico," Heasley says. And under the new model, Heasley's team can redistribute computing power as necessary from a central location. It's worked so well, Heasley says, that the company is currently working on consolidating all of its ERP systems - in Mexico, the United States and Canada - into a single instance of Oracle ERP at headquarters.

For many companies, utility computing will arrive in the form it did at Gates - disguised under names like "virtualization" and "consolidation". As servers and storage become consolidated, IT will need tools to better manage workloads and increase efficiency: the mantra of utility.

Hosted services, meanwhile, present another approach - one that takes the servers out of your hands entirely. Four years ago, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) began using Akamai Edge computing services for distributing online advertisements because it made more economic sense than trying to build a geographically dispersed server network. Then, two years ago, RCCL launched a successful advertising campaign that increased its normal load by four to five times as customers logged on to investigate cruises. "I had 18 servers and needed to scale up to 30," says Mike Sutten, vice president of IT at the company. "I have pictures of some of our technicians with servers in their hands running down the hallway." Techs were even forced to cannibalize other projects to keep the Web site running.

As a result, RCCL shifted more of its Web operations to Akamai's servers, culminating in the piloting of some J2EE applications to Akamai's globally distributed network of IBM WebSphere servers - for which RCCL pays for usage only, not software licences. Those applications currently access data that resides on RCCL's in-house servers. But that could change, as RCCL gains experience with Akamai and as Akamai rolls out new offerings, Sutten says.