But alas, neither my waffle iron nor grid computing seem to get much use. According to a recent report by the 451 Group, only a small number of today's commercial applications that appear suitable for grids have actually been deployed on grids. The reason? ISV's have other, higher priorities, according to report author and principal analyst William Fellows.

"Support for virtualization and service-oriented architecture is typically the key technical direction for ISVs that have not grid-enabled their software," Fellows says. "ISVs often claim they're still seeing limited demand for grid-enabled applications, although early adopters are often frustrated by the lack of movement from the software vendors," he adds.

So maybe it's a chicken-and-egg thing. Or maybe, like my waffle iron, grid computing is just too special-purpose to get the management mind share it needs to really catch on. I recently had lunch with a CIO who told me why he thought server virtualization is so hot right now: "We just want to be able to manage our distributed environment and the whole datacenter, like we manage the mainframe. We want it to be a no-brainer."

So, is grid swimming against the tide of simplicity here? Kind of, according to the 451 Group. Grid-enablement means writing or rewriting apps and all the associated APIs, the report says. Challenges include job splitting, division and queuing, shared memory, and data management, as well as managing the potential for a "deadly embrace" or "deadlocking" between two apps sharing the same infrastructure. And, the report continues, "managing the output from a job run on a grid is another pain point, as are caching and the wider integration between storage, compute, and network resources."

Still, as with my waffle iron, the desire to use the grid is there. Many smart minds are at work on software to better utilize datacenter assets and better manage workloads. Now if only they could invent a waffle iron that would also stir the batter.