I ran across SwarmStream and thought it was a wonderful piece of technology.  Basically, they took BitTorrent and slipped it under Java so that any Java application can trade bits as fast as BitTorrent can.

Unfortunately, not enough people needs it badly enough to make it a successful venture IMHO.  Same opinion applies to the grid technology.  If you can plug your feed tube into some government agency with a fat budget, excellent.  If not, your meals will be far and wide in-between.  If you took Google's wonderfully expansive service technology and turned it into a product, will it survive?  My opinion is that it won't.

Who Needs It?

Really.  Who needs server farms?  Google does.  Who else and how many of them are there?  More importantly, are they the kind of customers with the right sense of value?  Would Yahoo or Microsoft buy it?  I don't think so.  People who need it are few and most of them are too gung-ho to be interested in buying instead of building it themselves.  Banks?  Are banks prepared to own or even rent server farms?

Who Wants It?

Swaming requires third party participants.  That cuts entire financial services sector out.  And entertainment industry is, in some ways, more conservative than the banking industry.  Will they let their latest hot movie swarm?  What a joke.

Revolution is a lonely business if you jump the gun.  Swarming and grid technologies, active or not, are ahead of its time.  If you got enough money and marketing know-how, you can hurry time.  Otherwise, you are walking into a world of hurt.  Maybe you can prevail.  Most likely not.