Emlyn Pagden's Sun BluePrintsTM OnLine article, "The IT Utility Model, Part I," is written from the standpoint of the service provider or data center, which shapes the assumptions underlying the piece accordingly.

Pagden defines both utility computing (a method for consuming the resources of a computer based on its utilization rather than its ownership) and utility pricing (a method of billing customers for computer resources they have consumed). To best profit from a utility computing scheme, Pagden says, a company must have a utility pricing scheme in place.

Three operations are fundamental to the establishment of a utility computing scheme, according to Pagden. These are resource analysis -- determining who is consuming computer resources; consolidation -- allocating IT resources to maximize utilization and create a pool of spare resources available for future growth; and ownership of IT resources -- transferring ownership of resources from individual business units to a central IT supply function.

A critical first step in implementing a utility computing model within an organization is the establishment of an IT supply unit without causing resentments in the business units that are asked to contribute their compute resources to the central IT supply unit.

An essential part of the IT utility model is a chargeback feature, Pagden continues, that allows the IT supply unit to recover the costs incurred by other business units as they consume compute resources. The chargeback feature then makes it possible for the IT supply unit to capitalize on the risk element involved in maintaining sufficient capacity to meet all levels of demand.

Pagden demonstrates the operation of the IT utility model in a service provider context, showing how it is possible for both the customer and the service provider to extract savings by transferring ownership of compute resources to an outside source, thus avoiding the typical 70 percent under-utilization of resources owned in-house.

In Part II of his article, Pagden discusses the use of commercially available software such as SolarisTM Resource Manager to implement an IT utility model that allows for capacity and service level management agreements.

The complete text of Part I is available at:

http://www.sun.com/solutions/blueprints/0703/817-3177.pdf [...read more...]

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