Telcos jump into utility computing

The recent flurry of new 'on-demand' service offerings unveiled by MCI, AT&T, and SAVVIS is a strong indication that the utility computing movement is gaining momentum. While they prefer to refer to their offerings as 'managed services,' the telecommunications carriers are being driven by the same trends that are fuelling the rapid evolution of the utility computing market.

Skeptics may scoff at the suggestion that the carriers can deliver a competitive set of utility computing services given the assortment of internal operational challenges they face. And AT&T and MCI will need to withstand the additional distractions associated with their respective mergers with SBC and Verizon. However, they, along with SAVVIS, are winning customers and gaining valuable experience responding to customers' utility computing service needs.

MCI recently unveiled a Utility Storage Service through which the carrier can quickly provision storage area networking (SAN) solutions to enterprises to respond to their fluctuating needs. This offers an attractive alternative to enterprises tired of investing in excess storage capacity to meet their occasional requirements and allows enterprises to consolidate their existing storage systems across multiple platforms, simplifying their complex storage management challenges.

MCI has also expanded its managed security capabilities as a result of its acquisition of independent managed service provider NetSec and intends to expand its managed application service capabilities with its acquisition of Totality, a managed application service provider.

AT&T has countered MCI's moves by expanding its network of hosting facilities worldwide and by adding two new features to its application hosting and performance management arsenal -- Server and Operating System Support (SOSS) and Managed Utility Computing Pay-Per-Use.

The service provider that has gone furthest down the utility computing path is SAVVIS. Founded as a specialized Internet Protocol (IP) provider, SAVVIS has combined bold acquisitions and technology adoption to build the most innovative and advanced on-demand service delivery infrastructure and managed service portfolio in the industry. On the acquisition side, SAVVIS purchased Cable & Wireless' hosting facilities to give it a global service delivery platform. On the technology side, the company is combining 3PAR virtualized storage technology, Egenera blade technology and Sun's SunRay^TM thin client systems to deliver end-to-end utility computing solutions that span centralized hosting and distributed desktop services.

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