There is an interesting article on The Register today about Utility Data Centres and the area of Utility Computing. Although they suggest on the first page that it will be larger organisations who start to embrace the trend, about half way down page 2, they say:

“Long term, or so the theory goes, the majority of users will gradually shift towards utility-based service provision for all their IT needs. They will specify their basic resource and service requirements and be able to add short-term services and resources, at a cost, when required. This will be particularly important for small companies, for they would be able to pay as they use the platform resources and applications licences that otherwise they would not be able to afford to buy outright. That way, they could compete on level terms with much bigger rivals. And for any company aiming at the maximum in agility to meet changing market demands they could, so long as they could pay for its use, simply “open the tap” and there the necessary resources would be. A marketing campaign that generates more business than even the most wildly optimistic marketroid’s forecasts? Just open the tap and get the resources you need.”

In our modest view, smaller companies have more easily justifiable resturn on investment for utility computing and will also find the shift easier to make as there are less legacy issues and embedded processes. Expect to see more use of utility computing this year …