As everyone in the manufacturing business knows, the industry works in cycles that wreak havoc with even the best-laid plans for purchasing and managing computer resources. During some busy periods, research and development—or other power-greedy activities—may use up all available computing power, while at other times the network will hum along with plenty of CPU cycles to spare.

That leaves many enterprises with three equally unsatisfactory choices: buy and maintain a system that's significantly more powerful than they normally need in order to make sure they have enough computing power during crunch periods; learn to make do with less computing power than they need; or devote all available network power to R&D chores when required, leaving other users in the company without the computing resources that they need to do their jobs.

With Sun Microsystems' new pay-as-you-go utility computing offerings, the manufacturing industry no longer has to choose between overinvesting and underperforming. Customers can rent supercomputing power from Sun, paying only for as much computing power as they need, when they need it.

Rent a Supercomputer

Sun President and COO Jonathan Schwartz announced the Sun N1 Grid Utility Computing Pay-Per-Use Cycles program, the first of several utility computer offerings from Sun, at an event last fall for the financial industry held in New York City. The service offering was greeted with resounding approval by the local business press and Wall Street investment firms.

"Renting computing power just makes sense," says technology consultant Frank Eggers. "Sometimes you need a supercomputer and sometimes you don't. Why pay the equipment fees and maintenance costs year-round for equipment you don't use on a daily basis?"

Sun's N1 Grid Utility Computing Pay-Per-Use Cycles program enables customers to rent a "grid" of connected computers that can be used for power-hungry tasks such as running computer-aided simulations, crunching seismic data that can locate oil fields, and product modeling.

Schwartz said that Sun would offer unconventional pricing plans to suit the needs of customers. He also said that the company envisages a future in which customers buy computer cycles from Sun, much like they currently buy wireless calling plans from telecommunications providers.

Eventually Sun expects to sell access to computing cycles to service providers, which will then be able to offer competitively priced and interesting service bundles to end users, much as the wireless industry does now. Schwartz also noted that, unlike competitors' "one-size-fits-all" offerings, Sun's utility computing solutions can be tailored to best fit a business's needs.

Setting the Standard

Shortly after the New York event, Sun announced Sun Utility Computing for High-end Grid services, intended for customers who need occasional or moderate access to high-performance systems or who need access to computing resources to handle sudden spikes in demand.

The new offering includes value-added services from Sun's partners, such as private and secure partitioning within a data center; custom applications; customization services for unique workload requirements; application tuning and integration; data management services; pay-per-use storage; and partner-provided applications and management.

"Sun and our partners are setting the standard for utility computing as a model for reducing costs, and customers are showing tremendous interest in Sun's portfolio of solutions and pay-for-use offerings," says Terry Erdle, Sun's vice president of worldwide strategy and marketing for services and solutions.

"By adding our new Sun Utility Computing for High-end Grid offering to our other utility compute, storage, and N1 Grid Computing Pay-Per-Use Cycles offerings, we are leveling the playing fields across all industries and for all sizes of businesses. No longer should peak demands, lack of access, or infrastructure acquisition costs be a hurdle to business success."

The Sun Utility Computing for High-end Grid offering will initially be delivered by Sun partners Atos Origin, CGI, and Electronic Data Systems, providing a secure platform of distributed resources, including high-performance Sun Fire V20z servers, Sun N1 Grid Engine software, and the Solaris or Linux operating system optimized for compute-intensive workloads. Options to use other industry-specific applications will also be available through Sun's partners.

And for those who need access to storage space in their data centers, there's Sun Utility Computing for High-end StorEdge. With this offering customers receive just the right amount of storage capacity that they need, when they need it.

"With these pay-as-you-go programs, Sun customers get access to resources right away without the need for long-term contracts," says Shereen Fink, manufacturing industry marketing manager. "With Sun, accessing necessary computing resources is as simple and logical as flipping a switch to turn on a light."