The idea, as outlined in this article by David Meyer, is that people would buy “heavily subsidized” (cheap) PCs, but then pay charges based on how much computing time and processing power they used.
Microsoft notes in the application that the end user could end up paying more for the computer, compared with the one-off cost entailed in the existing PC business model, but argues the user would benefit by having a PC with an extended “useful life.” A computer with scalable performance level components and selectable software and service options has a user interface that allows individual performance levels to be selected,” reads the patent application’s abstract. The patent application was filed June 21, 2007.Be sure to read the rest in Meyer’s article. Note that this is speculation based on a patent filed by Microsoft: I’m not aware of any concrete plans from Microsoft to roll this out, but I thought it’d be fun to discuss.
If they do, however, I can’t see it catching on. Who wants to monitor their PC usage for fear of spending too long online or using too much CPU or memory, lest they get a big ding in the form of a hefty bill at the end of the month? Just because people have put up with this sort of thing from their mobile providers, doesn’t mean they’ll get onboard for pay-as-you-go computing. In fact, the experience with cell phone bills is likely to make any smart customer very wary of Microsoft’s metered computing idea. (Note that, on the enterprise side, having the same sort of ability — to pay only for the compute time you use, makes much more sense — but for home users? Not such a hot idea.)
The current proprietary software model for consumer PCs is bad enough. But license fees look like a bargain compared to metered computing — which Microsoft acknowledges will increase the cost of ownership of a PC over the PC’s lifetime. Aside from the cost factor, which is a pretty big downside to start with, there’s the enforcement side. Part of metered computing is the ability to shut off service.
Picture this scenario, if you will: It’s the start of a new billing cycle. You or one of your family members is sitting down at the computer to write that report for work or school that’s due tomorrow. For some reason, a payment wasn’t processed correctly, and suddenly the computer is locked up. Even if you do get the situation ironed out the same days, it’s an hour out of your life getting it smoothed out. Or perhaps the validation server is down, and you’re out of order for the next day while they get it smoothed out. This isn’t far-fetched — people have already been bitten by just this sort of problem with Windows Genuine Advantage.
Contrast this with the open source model: The up-front cost for a Linux distro is either free or very minimal (if you decide to pay for a physical copy rather than download) and the long term cost for updates and use is, well, nothing.
Odds are, this idea is in the nascent stage, and may never be rolled out. With the economy being what it is, I can’t see any vendors making a straight-faced argument to ask customers to pay more for what amounts to less. Maybe I’ve been doing this open source thing too long, though, and gotten used to paying nothing for my desktop usage. Is there demand for pay-as-you-go, or does it get a big thumbs-down? [via]
Santa Clara, California – (The Hosting News) – December 23, 2008 – Web operations services provider, OpSource, will support the Taleo provider of on-demand talent management solutions, to deliver its Business Edition Platform.
Jason Blessing, General Manager and Group Vice President, Taleo Business Edition, explained, ”We looked at several different web delivery providers for Taleo Business Edition and chose OpSource because they meet our high standards for excellence; they know our business and they are experts in SaaS delivery. As an OpSource On-Demand customer, we receive access to their wide range of services and expertise without having to pay for additional in-house resources and employees. Additionally, OpSource is able to scale with us and their success-based pricing model gives us real value from a cost perspective.”
Taleo Business Edition is the company’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering consisting of recruiting and performance management solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs). When Taleo decided to outsource SaaS delivery for its SMB client base they needed a scalable solution they could depend on to meet performance requirements and eliminate the large upfront costs of a data center. Taleo selected OpSource On-Demand because of its proven reputation as a robust, cost effective and secure solution.
Treb Ryan, CEO of OpSource, added, ”Taleo guarantees the integrity of customers’ data and processes and OpSource On-Demand offers the security and reliability they need to fulfill that promise. Additionally, our disaster recovery solution provides Taleo peace of mind knowing there is a plan in place to keep applications running even in ‘worst case’ scenarios. We’re honored to have earned Taleo’s trust as their web operations partner for Taleo Business Edition.”
A comprehensive web operations solution, OpSource On-Demand is designed to enable Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Web companies to quickly and securely deliver their applications and services over the web to consumers and businesses alike. Going far beyond full-featured managed hosting, it includes the application management, compliance and business services that are necessary for on-demand business success.
OpSource On-Demand includes: Technical Operations Best-in-class, scalable software, hardware and network infrastructure World-class data center facilities Redundant carrier class load balancing architecture In-depth 24×7 monitoring, security, and management procedures backed by SAS-70 Type II audits Built-in high availability solutions from simple clustering to wide-area disaster recovery Application Operations Data management Performance management, including multipoint user-experience monitoring Application roll out and change management Application optimization Compliant infrastructure, processes and procedures including: SAS 70 Type II audited, HIPAA and PCI DSS compliance and salesforce.com and WebEx certifications Business Operations OpSource Billing CLM – An end-to-end subscription management, metering and payment stand-alone solution, or as part of OpSource On-Demand OpSource Connect – A web services infrastructure and integration toolset, for application integration in the ‘Cloud’ and behind the corporate fire-wall OpSource End-User Support – 24×7 customer branded end-user support OpSource Analytics – A real-time application and customer usage information, and health of business analysis and reporting tool.
OpSource delivers Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and web applications for on-demand companies, with hundreds of applications, millions of users and billions of transactions supported daily. OpSource On-Demand, the leading web operations solution, is defining how web-based software is delivered. By choosing OpSource as their web application delivery partner, companies are freed from investing in and managing the complex and costly infrastructure and services necessary to deliver applications over the web. They can instead focus their resources on developing, marketing and selling their applications and services.
Further, by using OpSource Connect companies can leverage web services such as OpSource Billing CLM, OpSource Analytics and OpSource End-User Support and integrate their applications with other SaaS applications over the Internet as well as with enterprise applications behind the corporate firewall. OpSource On-Demand is suitable for companies at any stage of growth, with any type of on-demand application.Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, OpSource has Web application delivery centers in Virginia, London and Bangalore.
For more information about OpSource, please visit: www.opsource.net.
Singapore, Asia – (The Hosting News) – December 23, 2008 – Developer of near-continuous data protection products for Linux and Windows, R1Soft, has been chosen by Asia’s Leading Hosting Provider, Usonyx, in a partnership to offer Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for Linux and Windows.
CDP technology enables Usonyx to provide round-the-clock backups virtually eliminating the risk of data loss and adding even more value to their superior hosting services. Available as part of a managed service package, R1Soft CDP backup add-on options can also be purchased separately starting at S$10 per 20GB for dedicated server customers.
Martin Chan, Managing Director of Usonyx remarked, ”After twelve months of exploring backup solutions, we are glad to have finally chosen R1Soft. Backup has become an essential part of hosting and a top priority for all customers. The R1 sales and support team provides prompt responses, meets all of our needs and the software’s reliability speaks for itself.”
After the initial testing period proved successful, Usonyx decided to extend CDP to their Taiwan and Malaysia data centers and join the R1Soft Hosting Partner Program (R1HPP) as well. As an R1HPP member, Usonyx receives exclusive access to the resources needed to promote the solution and educate current customers about the benefits and security CDP brings has to offer.
David Wartell, Vice President of R1Soft, a division of BBS Technologies, Inc. added, ”We are pleased that CDP has already satisfied and exceeded Usonyx’s expectations and we anticipate a close partnership in the future as they continue to provide CDP to their customers. The R1HPP will assist Usonyx in effectively marketing CDP with key resources as they introduce the solution. Usonyx has long been a dominant player in the Asia hosting industry so we look forward to helping them successfully deploy R1Soft CDP.”
Usonyx provides a world-class, fully automated infrastructure, multi-homed network and 24×7 technical support, all enabling customers and partners to develop and sustain a strong web and email infrastructure without costly investments in hardware, software and IT staffing. Thousands of enterprises today rely on Usonyx as the gateway to global businesses, customers and networks.
Founded in 2003, R1Soft is a provider of disk-based backup solutions. The company’s customer list includes some of the world’s largest hosting providers. R1soft products provide Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for over 85,000 mission-critical Linux and Windows servers worldwide. In November, 2007 R1Soft was acquired by BBS Technologies, Inc.
To learn more about Usonyx, please visit: www.Usonyx.net.
For more about R1Soft and Continuous Data Protection, please visit: www.r1soft.com.
Noord-Holland, Amsterdam – (The Hosting News) – December 23, 2008 – Data center provider, EvoSwitch, has reduced the average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of its facilities, from 1.8 to 1.6.
The above power reduction resulted in a 20 percent increase in energy saving – from 20 to 40 percent – compared to a traditional data center.
The ultimate goal of EvoSwitch is to achieve an energy saving of 70 to 80 percent. The extra 20 percent saving in energy consumption is largely the result of further investments in low-energy equipment and control systems. The expansion of the data center in 2008 also contributed to the improved PUE.
The first phase of EvoSwitch (2,000 m2) is already fully occupied by equipment from customers. This phase was completed in April 2007. Part of the second phase (2,000 m2 extra) is also almost fully used. The second phase was completed shortly before the summer of 2008 and required an additional investment of 9 million Euros. When the next phases are completed, EvoSwitch will have a potential floor area capacity of more than 9,000 m2.
Laurens Rosenthal, Innovation Director of EvoSwitch noted, ”The extra energy saving is in line with what we calculated beforehand. An average PUE of 1.6 is low, but the new design of the next phases enables us to achieve an even lower PUE. After completion of the next phases a PUE of 1.2 to 1.3 is a very realistic objective. According to our calculations, an energy saving will be realised in the new phase, in phase 3, of 70 to 80 percent compared to a traditional data center.”
A PUE of 1.2 to 1.3 is very low and proves that EvoSwitch is a leading data center innovator. Rosenthal: It means that you need only 20 to 30 percent extra power to manage the data centre infrastructure, whereas in traditional data centres 80 to 120 percent extra power is quite common nowadays. There are even excesses in the market of 3.0, which means that 200 percent extra energy is required.
Mr. Rosenthal added, ”The energy savings are used by EvoSwitch to finance the current and new investments in green technologies, but also to offer customers affordable energy prices. Building a green data center is more expensive than a traditional data center, but this does not affect our customers. We use the savings for further investments in green technology. Our customers also do not have to pay anything extra for our CO2 compensation, in which we invest together with the Climate Neutral Group. At EvoSwitch, companies are also better protected against high energy charges. Because of our investments in green technology and our long-term energy purchasing strategy, we can keep energy costs controllable and predictable for our customers. The environmentally friendly design of the EvoSwitch data center was the result of expert advice from TNO and the innovative work of our own dedicated design team. It enabled us to offer an energy-low concept at the opening of the data center in April 2007, among other things based on Free Cooling (using the outside temperature), Cold Corridors (separating warm and cold air flows) and UPS technology with Delta Conversion.”
EvoSwitch is now putting the final touches to a new design that will improve the PUE even further. Rosenthal: This will result in lower capital costs and operating costs and will benefit both the environment and the customers of EvoSwitch.
Mr. Rosenthal continued, ”There are many suppliers on the market who claim to operate ‘green’. The only thing that counts in a data center, however, is the Power Usage Effectiveness. A data centre may buy green power, but that does not make it energy-low. A data centre may install Cold Corridors, but that does not necessarily result in the best possible energy saving. The PUE of a data centre is the key figure that shows how green a data center actually is. Recently, the Green Grid, of which we are a member, decided to use the term Data Center infrastructure Effectiveness (DCiE) as well. The lower the PUE or the higher the DCiE, the more successful the concept of a green data center. How this is achieved is a matter of making the right choices from the various available green technologies. We now aim to realise a PUE of 1.2 to 1.3 in the new data center designs.”
EvoSwitch is a carrier-neutral, green data Center (CO2-neutral). The data center is located in the Amsterdam region, has good connections and a spacious floor area of more than 9,000 m2. EvoSwitch is ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified. To customers this means that their IT infrastructure within EvoSwitch is protected according to the highest standards. The data center has a total capacity of 20 Megawatt. This power capacity enables EvoSwitch to guarantee customers that there is always enough energy available. EvoSwitch operates fully climate-neutral. In cooperation with the Climate Neutral Group the data center invests in worldwide projects to restore the CO2 balance in the atmosphere.
For more information about Climate Neutral Group, please visit: www.climateneutralgroup.com.
To learn more about The Green Fan Partner Programme, please visit: www.thegreenfan.com.
For more about EvoSwitch, please visit: www.evoswitch.com.
