1. A method of determining computing resource usage in a utility computing environment having a plurality of network infrastructure nodes, each network infrastructure node including a plurality of computing resource types measured according to respective resource units, the method comprising: for each of the plurality of network infrastructure nodes: determining, for each resource type, an adjusted cost per predetermined time unit to deploy and operate each of the plurality of computing resource types; applying a cost conversion factor to each adjusted cost to determine a number of resource units comprising a quantum of a universal metric; for each computing resource type, generating an average number of resource units per quantum of the universal metric by averaging the number of resource units over the plurality of network infrastructure nodes; for an application executing on at least one of the network infrastructure nodes, periodically monitoring usage of each computing resource type to generate a number of resource units used in a predetermined time period; for each computing resource type, determining a quanta of the universal metric consumed in the predetermined time period by converting the number of resource units used in the predetermined time period according to the average number of resource units per quantum of the universal metric for the respective computing resource type; and generating a total resource consumption by adding the quanta of the universal metric consumed by the application in the predetermined time period for each computing resource type.