App developers 'loosen up'

Application developers have been fighting an escalating war against chaos in IT stacks of evergrowing complexity. Utility computing, with its highly distributed systems, must make a final assault. The challenge is grueling even in those systems where a developer has full knowledge of hardware configuration, with only a known portfolio of applications and inputs and outputs to manage. The contest rises to a much higher level when utility models run in dynamic environments, such as those of a grid computing arrangement. INSET: Keeping it loose.