Zimki, the floundering pay-as-you-use online application platform, is to be killed off by London-based developer Fotango on Christmas Eve, it was revealed today.

A service announcement tells users that on 24 December their data will be deleted and the Zimki servers decommissioned.

Fotango states: "We hope that Zimki has helped to increase your knowledge and understanding of the possibilities that utility computing and an online application framework can bring."

The full extent of the problems facing the project were revealed by The Register when financial backer Canon Europe withdrew support from Fotango's flagship service.

Canon got cold feet after COO Simon Wardley used his OSCON speech to dramatically quit the firm. He was upset at Fotango's board for a U-turn on plans to make the Zimki platform open source. The closure statement makes it clear the Zimki code will stay closed.

Zimki's ambitious aim was to pioneer the "utility computing" model for online applications. It would create an electricity-style grid for new services to easily plug into via JavaScript. Amazon's S3 runs along similar lines.

Fotango's spokesman was not immediately available for comment. ®

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