A universal platform for utility computing that allows service providers to charge clients for the services rendered according to a dimensionless cross-platform universal metric. The platform mea-sures or monitors six metrics commonly used in software computing (MHz for CPU usage, Mbytes for memory usage, Kbytes/sec for I/O, Kbytes/sec for LAN, Kbits/sec for WAN and Gbytes for storage) and applies appropriate weighting and conversion factors to eachconsump-tion value to a value in the universal metric that can be applied agnosti-cally to any system or application. The metric can also take other con-trollable variables into account, such as real estate cost, tax jurisdiction and electrical power. The metric effectively a metric makes diverse computing resources comparable. The total value of the resources con-sumed by a user determines the cost charged for the use of the comput-ing services.