Cloud Computing versus Grid Computing
People have called grid computing cloud computing but the two are really pretty different. Here are the different definitions (from Wikipedia):
Grid Computing
Grid computing (or the use of a computational grid) is the application of several computers to a single problem at the same time — usually to a scientific or technical problem that requires a great number of computer processing cycles or access to large amounts of data.
According to John Patrick, IBM’s vice president for Internet strategies, “the next big thing will be grid computing.”
Grid computing depends on software to divide and apportion pieces of a program among several computers, sometimes up to many thousands.
Grid computing can also be thought of as distributed and large-scale cluster computing, as well as a form of network-distributed parallel processing.
It can be small — confined to a network of computer workstations within a corporation, for example — or it can be a large, public collaboration across many companies or networks.
It is a form of distributed computing whereby a “super and virtual computer” is composed of a cluster of networked, loosely coupled computers, acting in concert to perform very large tasks.
This technology has been applied to computationally intensive scientific, mathematical, and academic problems through volunteer computing, and it is used in commercial enterprises for such diverse applications as drug discovery, economic forecasting, seismic analysis, and back-office data processing in support of e-commerce and Web services.
What distinguishes grid computing from conventional cluster computing systems is that grids tend to be more loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed.
Also, while a computing grid may be dedicated to a specialized application, it is often constructed with the aid of general-purpose grid software libraries and middleware.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is Internet (“cloud”) based development and use of computer technology (“computing”).
It is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet.
Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them.
The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as Web 2.0 and other recent technology trends which have the common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users.
Examples of SaaS vendors include Salesforce.com and Google Apps which provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.
The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams, and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals.
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