Go to Cloud Topic Page

Research Briefings

Metered IT: the path to utility computing

Summary:

Agility is increasingly recognized as one of the main advantages of cloud computing, but an important aspect of agility is choice: the choice to run computing jobs in house, in a private cloud, or on public cloud services from the likes of Amazon, Rackspace, and a growing number of other providers. To exercise choice, customers require information and the ability to compare the costs and benefits of competing solutions. This report explores opportunities for accurately measuring computing resources and their use, simplifying the comparison of competing cloud offerings and opening the door to charging models based more closely on actual consumption.

  1. Table of contents                                                                                                            
  2. Executive summary                                                                                                    
  3. The value of measurement                                                                                     
    1. What can we measure?                                                                                            
    2. Allocation vs. consumption                                                                                      
  4. Utility computing                                                                                                      
    1. Measuring consistently                                                                                           
  5. Pros and cons of utility computing                                                              
  6. Future possibilities                                                                                                
  7. Key takeaways                                                                                                            
  8. About Paul Miller                                                                                                    
  9. About GigaOM Pro

Click below to see an archive of Pro coverage on any on any of the following companies.