Toward a business process grid for utility computing

Existing grid computing technologies take advantage of underused computing capacity to solve business problems and provide IT-level infrastructure to support business applications. A business grid's ultimate goal, however, is to apply the utility model of grid computing to business applications; that is, provide support services for charging users on a pay-per-use basis, much as a utility company charges for electricity. That way, the vendor takes the responsibility for application maintenance and upgrade. Thus, a business grid provides a virtualized infrastructure to support the transparent use and sharing of business functions on demand.