on-demand computing

The on-demand model was developed to overcome the common challenge to an enterprise of being able to meet fluctuating demands efficiently. Because an enterprise's demand on computing resources can vary drastically from one time to another, maintaining sufficient resources to meet peak requirements can be costly. Conversely, if the enterprise cuts costs by only maintaining minimal computing resources, there will not be sufficient resources to meet peak requirements.

On-demand computing products are rapidly becoming prevalent in the marketplace. Computer Associates, HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems are among the more prominent on-demand vendors. These companies refer to their on-demand products and services by a variety of names. IBM calls theirs "On Demand Computing" (without the hypen). Concepts such as grid computing, utility computing, autonomic computing, and adaptive management seem very similar to the concept of on-demand computing. Jason Bloomberg, Senior Analyst with ZapThink, says that on-demand computing is a broad category that includes all the other terms, each of which means something slightly different. Utility computing, for example, is an on-demand approach that combines outsourced computing resources and infrastructure management with a usage-based payment structure (this approach is sometimes known as metered services).

Many industry insiders expect on-demand computing to become the most pervasive enterprise computing model within the next few years. According to Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's vice-president of technology and strategy (quoted in a ZDNet Tech Update article), "The technology is at a point where we can start to move into an era of on-demand computing. I give it between two and four years to reach a level of maturity."

Read more about on-demand computing: - On-demand (OD) computing is an increasingly popular enterprise model in which computing resources are made available to the user as needed. - Baseline Computing has an article about "Utility Computing." - ZDNet offers a Tech Update article, "On-demand computing: What are the odds?" - Learn more about on-demand computing on IBM's eServer iSeries

Do you have something to add to this definition? Let us know. Send your comments to techterms@whatis.com

BROWSE BY TAG Server hardware,   Cloud Computing, grid and utility computing,   Information systems management,   Configuration and change management,   Data center operations management,   Managing data center outsourcing services and vendors,   VIEW ALL TAGS

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Sun launches HPC products as Oracle takeover nears Despite an uncertain future under Oracle, Sun Microsystems launched several high-performance computing hardware and software offerings this week. Gartner dispels concerns surrounding cloud computing services in India A Gartner analyst shares his advice for Indian IT departments that want to adopt cloud-based services. Group works toward energy-efficient high-performance computing High-performance computing is a power hog. But an HPC benchmarking group is developing an efficiency metric, and a new online calculator compares HPC...

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary Blue Gene  (SearchDataCenter.com) Blue Gene is an experimental parallel processing supercomputer developed by IBM that employs thousands of processors, each of which demands minimal... cluster computing  (SearchDataCenter.com) In computers, clustering is the use of multiple computers, typically PCs or UNIX workstations, multiple storage devices, and redundant...