Grid computing attempts to connect up the islands of processing power and data in the world's universities and to standardise ways of interrogating data and calling on huge amounts of computer power.

BBC: Why the future will be easier to use

Sun's announcement marks the information technology industry's latest step toward "utility computing, " a grid system in which companies pipe in data processing and storage from faraway server farms, says Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, a book on utility computing published earlier this week.

FORBES: Sun Plans To Close Its Data Centers