Why Computing Power Is Not A Utility

from the so-much-for-that-idea dept

As IBM, HP and Sun battle it out over "utility" or "grid" computing and try to convince companies that they can price out their IT infrastructure as if it were a utility, the folks at Dell are trying to pull back the curtain to point out why buying your IT infrastructure is very different from buying electricity. Now, clearly, they're biased - because they want to be able to sell more of their own machines and not get locked out. However, some of the points are valid. For most large companies, having the right IT infrastructure is vital - and it's definitely going to be different than another company. By going to a single source utility provider, you end up with the lowest common denominator of computing - designed to work for everyone, but not customized to your needs. The best result is probably somewhere in between the extremes (though, obviously, it depends on the company and what they're trying to do). Some element of IT infrastructure (the basics) can easily be outsourced to a service provider, but other - more core - elements probably should be run in-house.

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