Utility Computing and its Relationship with Cloud Computing

Utility Computing refers to techniques and business model of a service which provides customer services and it matches with Cloud Computing certain levels. Utility Computing, however was in practice before the new wave of wide spread Cloud Computing is in business usage now.
In order to understand utility computing, it is important to know about Cloud Computing SaaS, Paas and IaaS.

Features and Types of Utility Computing

Examples of such Utility Computing services are providing processing power, storage and hosting applications. The term Utility Computing refers to utility services just like using electricity, water and gas, which are provided by a utility company. Similar to the electricity or telephone network, the customer applies for utility computing service, the computing power consumption is measured and billed.

So, Cloud Computing is actually a division of Utility Computing. In other words, Utility Computing is a business model, but Cloud Computing is a practical application of Virtualization technology.

Most definitions of utility computing has the following five properties –

• Scalability ?: When utility computing is to be used, it must have to be ensured that under all conditions sufficient IT resources are available. Increased demand for a service should not suffer its delivery.

• Usage dependent price ?: So far, companies have to buy hardware and software when they need processing power. This IT infrastructure must be paid in advance. In utility computing, however, the costs depend on the use of IT services.

• Standardized Services ?: The provider offers a catalog of standardized services. These can be at different service-level agreements to be linked.

• Virtualization ?: This allows IT resources to share, and virtualization techniques are used.

• Automation : Repetitive administration tasks, such as setting up a new server or the installation of updates will be automated in?Utility Computing.

Utility computing can be used in the two forms – Internal and External. Internal Utility Computing means that the computer network is shared only within a company. If several companies pool the computer of a provider, it is called External Utility Computing. Mixed forms are possible.

Advantages of?Utility Computing

Utility computing reduces IT costs, since the resources can be used more effectively. In addition, the costs more transparent and can be assigned to the departments of a company directly. Companies achieve greater flexibility as they convert their IT resources more quickly and more easily adapt to the fluctuating demand.

This article on Utility Computing and its Relationship with Cloud Computing is written by Mr. Kanai Lal Saha, who has been regularly writing excellent articles on core computing, Virtualization and Cloud Computing.