Prashanth Rai had a great post at the beginning of this month covering Sun Microsystems new pricing model for getting computing power by the hour. A couple of days after that post, Sun announced that grid use sales were going to be available on the Archipelago Exchange Inc., a Chicago-based electronic stock exchange (not available for 3 to 6 months). Now as reported at ComputerWeekly.com, folks at the IDC are pointing out that CIOs are going to need to develop market trading skills:

Speaking ahead of his keynote speech at IDC's Dynamic IT Conference last week, Martin Hingley, vice-president, IDC European systems group, described a world of flexible utility computing where IT managers make complex deals with suppliers based on how much they use systems.

"IT managers are definitely going to need more skills on the procurement side," Hingley said. "There will be a lot of negotiations with suppliers over usage-based pricing, and IT managers will become more like traders."

So sharpen up those skill sets CIOs. Here's some typical activities of a market trader as based from the traditional financial services markets:
- analyze the market
- gather information
- carry out detailed data analysis and valuation
- identify issues affecting your customers
- execute trades
- present ideas your customers
- secure deals for new customers
- develop customer relationships
- keep market-making traders abreast of issues.

Steve Shu