Computing at the rate of 1$ per hour

Why shouldn't computer power be like water or electricity—a utility you turn on and off and purchase only as needed? That is the concept behind the newly launched Sun Grid. Companies and universities can run processor-intensive projects over the Internet on Sun's grid of 10,000 computer nodes and pay only for the processor time and storage space they use. Most projects require multiple CPUs (mostly 2.4GHz Opterons) working cooperatively, but you are charged at a rate of $1 per CPU hour in the same way the electric company charges kilowatt hours. Many experts believe that in the next decade home computing, too, will follow this model and move from standalone PCs to low-power workstations that tap into a grid of on-demand CPU power and storage.