Big Guns Launch Utility Salvo - HP, IBM, Sun aim to usher in new era of computing.(utility computing)

The starting gun has been fired, and IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun are racing toward utility computing by rolling out products designed to give enterprises more efficient computing resources.

Meanwhile, software vendors Computer Associates (CA) and Opsware are joining the scramble by trumpeting new server administration and consolidation tools to ease customers' transition toward the utility model.

According to Forrester Research, four datacenter innovations -- Web services, server provisioning, storage virtualization, and network route optimization -- will "recast" datacenter architecture and allow customers to slice IT spending in half.

With that in mind, HP on Tuesday will unveil its Adaptive Enterprise strategy. IBM and Sun last week touted new technologies designed to bolster their utility strategies.

At an event in San Jose, Calif., to mark the one-year …