Microsoft's Utility Computing Placeholder.

Publication: eWeek

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc.

The concept of utility computing conjures up images of rack after rack of inexpensive computers--interchangeable commodity items where no one computer is more important than another. In general, this vision does not include thoughts of Microsoft software, but rather of free versions of Unix and Linux operating systems.

As you might imagine, Microsoft is loathe to give up on any potentially lucrative market segment, so it has been giving researching utility computing capabilities to academic institutions with free or low-cost Windows Server licenses. But it's clear that any potential profits would come from the business marketplace, not the academic world.

To establish a position in this market, Microsoft has taken a somewhat different tack than the Unix and Linux players. It has relabeled the...

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