On-Demand Computing May Not Be On-Budget Computing

Boston also spends a great deal of time looking at other vendors' ideas and strategies. One idea that has caught his eye: IBM's On-Demand Computing. Although IBM is one of Cisco's biggest allies, the idea of On-Demand Computing is unlikely to upend Boston's world anytime soon.

While he applauds IBM's attempt to help customers pay for only what they use, the On-Demand model, as he understands it, may not be the ticket for CIOs like him eagerly watching their costs,just yet. The problem: Although he has a great deal of clout within his company, he concedes that he cannot control how technology is used within his own organizations.

For example, he can barely prevent a corporate user from spending his or her time downloading a bunch of video clips over the corporate network. Nor can he easily determine that an unbounded SQL query running on his network was actually launched by mistake. Either use of his networked-storage and/or computing horsepower could wind up costing him extra money if he were to embrace an on-demand-like pricing plan. The same goes for those using technology for legitimate reasons, albeit in unexpected, processor-intensive ways.

At the end of the day, On-Demand Computing seems more of a pricing play to him, at least for now. He likens it to negotiating with a utility company for the best possible price on power only to have everyone in your house accidentally leave the lights on. No matter what you do up front, your bill could go up, he says.

Still, Boston says he won't turn a blind eye to the concept altogether. Cisco, after all, is looking to save money, just like everyone else.

With additional reporting by David Strom.