Grid computing

in New york Times:

It would offer remote computing resources to business customers, allowing them to purchase computer time over a network as easily as they buy electricity and water through wires and pipes.

The Sun Grid will cost clients $1 an hour for each microprocessor used and $1 a month for each gigabyte of storage. Customers will pay only for what they use when they use it, Sun said.

Grid computing is not new, but faster networks and new standards are making it easier for companies to outsource certain computing-intensive tasks to data centers owned by others and not worry about the cost of the computers or paying for electricity and other support costs.

Sun said its grid had 10,000 microprocessors in data centers in Texas, New Jersey, Virginia and Scotland, with more coming online this year. The company is working with pilot customers in the financial and oil industries, and it plans to make the service more widely available this spring.