BT announced on Tuesday that it is deploying 3Tera’s AppLogic grid operating system to support future software-as-a-service and other offerings.

The AppLogic system is a set of services that run on any Linux-based system. The platform allows carriers to manage their portfolios of online application and utility computing offerings and systems using only a browser and “basic IT skills,” according to 3Tera.

BT, which signed a multiyear contract with 3Tera, is deploying the AppLogic system internally, but it will be used for future services such as software-as-a-service, says Venkat Raju, senior strategy consultant at BT. He says BT is also conducting customer trials using the AppLogic system.

While other service providers have been offering utility computing services for the past three to four years, those offerings are generally manual intensive and do not allow customers to directly request more bandwidth or to turn on an application themselves. Instead requests for more bandwidth or for a new feature are directed to the carrier, which then fulfills the request.

3Tera’s AppLogic system automates these processes.

BT conducted a detailed search for a platform that would work well with its 21st Century Network initiative, Raju says. “3Tera’s product came the closest to meeting our requirements…it specifically has a virtual modeling environment that was very important to BT.”

BT’s 21 Century Network project is the carrier’s plan to replace all 16 of its networks with a single all-IP network.

While AppLogic is somewhat unique in the market, the vendor says there are a couple of platforms that offer customers similar features. Those platforms include Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud, also known as EC2, and Sun Microsystems’ Sun Computing Grid.