There's nothing new about the utility model. Like other utilities before it, utility computing traveled down an evolutionary path to commoditization. Utility or "commodity" computing is the result of a natural progression brought on by a pervasive demand for technical resources. Typically, the "utility progression" goes something like this:

• Solutions are custom-built when the technology is immature and fragile
• Standards are established to make adoption easier
• Pricing becomes transparent, and the resource becomes commoditized.

More than a hundred years ago, another utility — electricity — was starting down this same road. Famed financier J.P. Morgan was among the first to wire his house for electricity. To keep his house aglow, however, he needed an electrical engineer on staff to manage the immature and fragile system.