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EDS this week outlined its plans to implement metering of computer usage and billing based on usage in its hosting data centers.
EDS, which is implementing Ejasent Inc.s MicroMeasure software, is building on its computing-on-demand initiative by adding the ability to measure usage of server resources and bill back clients—based on that usage.
The new service capability, which will be offered to EDS hosting clients, builds on the existing storage on demand and flexible pricing for computing that EDS currently offers.
It is another “building block” in creating the infrastructure necessary to support true, pay-as-you-go computing, according to Al Rasteiro, global offering director for midrange services at EDS in Sacremento, Calif.
Compared to IBM Global Services, the new capabilities enabled by the MicroMeasure software have broader market appeal, believes industry analyst Adria Ferguson at Giga Information Group Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif.
“What IBM offers for utility computing is still very much mainframe driven and closer to outsourcing. Ejasents technology is focused on increasing automation, making utility computing less manual and customized and easier to manage,” she said.
EDS is also evaluating Ejasents UpScale Data Center software, which can monitor an applications computing demands and dynamically increase or decrease computing resources to meet those requirements.
The deal with Mountain View, Calif.-based Ejasent comes on the heels of EDSs agreement to license Opsware System 3 data center automation software from Opsware Inc., formerly LoudCloud, in Sunnyvale, Calif. EDS intends to automate service delivery and application management using Opsware first in its Web hosting centers and eventually across 50,000 servers in 14 major data centers and 140 client-owned and regional data centers around the globe.
Another building block in its computing-on-demand initiative is the software it licensed early this year from StorageNetworks Inc. to automate the management of petabytes of storage in EDS Service Management Centers.
“You need to enable certain functions to execute a utility computing strategy. Were trying to pick partners and tools for the functions we need,” said Jeff Kelly, president of EDS hosting services in Plano, Texas.
With the Ejasent software, EDS will provide metering and integrated billing for Sun Microsystems Inc.s Solaris servers as well as Linux, IBM AIX and Windows NT servers. The service will go live by years end in a handful of EDS Web hosting centers.
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