What is the Grid?
The term Grid to denote a distributed computing and storage environment was coined in 1998 by Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman. It refers to the metaphor of the power grid: computing capacity from a wall outlet and no need to install and maintain complex IT infrastructures on every location that needs access to applications. This grand vision of a globally virtualized IT infrastructure has at this time not yet been materialized in the way the early visionaries had in mind but we do see more and more of its features in operation today.
The major driving forces, from a business perspective, behind Grid are without any doubt the simplification and optimization of IT resources. Simplification results from the fact that Grid users can concentrate on their business applications instead of having to maintain a complete complex IT infrastructure; optimization is obtained because data centres do not have to be sized on peak load but can cleverly share the burden; the idea of on-demand computing. Additionally, a globally distributed IT infrastructure is natural in many very large organizations such as IBM, Shell, Philips, NASA, where large computation jobs can be submitted anytime, anywhere and freely float over the globe.
One of the most well-known examples of a Grid is the seti@home project which uses desktop computers all over the world to aid in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This application is still active and a good example of a Computational Grid. Large Grid configurations are formed by the combined forces of scientific data centres and are are working for projects in astronomy and high energy physics where very large amounts of data are generated. The BEinGRID project has shown, with its 25 Business Experiments, that the Grid concept is commercially viable also on a smaller scale, both for computing and for storage oriented tasks. Some technologies that realise parts of the Grid vision today are Service Orientation, Software as a Service and Cloud Computing.
What is Grid computing and how does it differ from other forms of distributed computing? At this point in the history of IT, there are many forms of distributed computing with considerable similarities. This illustrates the vitality of the Grid idea and it does of course not really matter what name is eventually given to the “Unified Global Distributed IT Infrastructure”. The most important characteristics of the Grid, mentioned e.g. by Ian Foster, is the fact that the nodes that make up the Grid are not controlled centrally but have their own management and ownership. If this is not the case, the term cluster seems more appropriate. Another characteristic is the use of open, non-proprietary, standards for information exchange between nodes. A third characteristic of the Grid is that it allows for the co-ordinated setting of various qualities of service, dependent on the requirements of the applications that make use of the Grid.
Although above we have used the phrase “The Grid”, there are in fact many different Grid's. A Grid stands for an architectural pattern that can be used on various scales. Current day Grid's are often created for only one or a small number of applications. There is nothing wrong with this and it allows us to gain experience with the application of the model. The fact that we have Grid, SOA, SaaS and Cloud Computing proves the importance of advancements in distributed computing.
Video: What is the Grid?
Watch these great videos about how to get started with Grid computing:
"What is the Grid" video
This video shows the interest in grid technology for the next years. You will see some concrete example of what you can build thanks to Grid Computing. This video also shows the role of BEinGRID and gives information about the security, the trust and the integration of data.
"Building Grids" video
This video explains the fundamental functions of Grid Computing. It compares “building grids” to “building houses” and introduces the main grid terminology as, for example, the grid broker, the scheduler and the middleware.
Read on....
Classifications of Grid computing systems
Case studies of Grid solutions
Grid Dic - a glossary of Grid computing terms
A free Cloud Computing primer from Sun Microsystems: Take your business to a higher level
Adopting Grid technology: advices for technology providers and end-users
