It is all part of an overall program of "missionary work, " in Zeitler's words, to get customers consolidating their gear and buying computing power as if it were electricity from a utility.

FORBES: IBM Does The On-Demand Dance

In mid 2009, HP purchased networking company 3Com, with gear that gave HP better access to the cloud computing market.

FORBES: HP's Move on IBM

The suite AMD set up to woo the press was stocked with gear brought in to show off AMD's visual computing prowess.

FORBES: AMD's Spin Room

"Sun specializes in high-end gear, and somebody has to supply the computers that power this utility computing, " says Carr.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Some even advocate the radical cure of selling a chunk of the networking business, floating the Palm Computing division and devoting the rest of the firm to wireless and broadband-access gear.

ECONOMIST: 3Com