"IT managers understand utility computing will happen, but it is unclear what shape it will eventually take", stated George Hamilton, Yankee Group Enterprise Computing & Networking analyst. "Business and IT managers should watch closely as standards evolve and product portfolios expand. The most important technological question for IT managers is how the management layer will communicate with the virtualization layer in the utility computing stack. It remains to be seen whether policy-based management of performance management software can direct the virtualized pool of resources to automatically allocate IT power to business services."

The Yankee Group proposes that automated infrastructure management tasks and an intense focus on business services performance will drive change and innovation. Utility computing enables the creation of management tools that not only manage the availability of the infrastructure, but also manage the performance of business services.