At first anyone wanting to switch supplier had to buy an expensive meter and pay for access to the wholesale market.

ECONOMIST: Electricity

Each day he clamped a Lange V9 ski boot onto the metal stem of a 2.5-meter-high Instron compression machine and flipped the power switch.

FORBES: Revenge of the nerds

But for computing to be bought and sold as a utility, firms must be able to switch vendors, to do it for all their computing functions, and with meter-based pricing.

ECONOMIST: The future of computing