Grid Computing History and Grid Computing Applications

What is Grid computing?

A computing infrastructure known as “grid computing” pools computer resources located in several geographic regions in order to accomplish a shared objective. Multiple computers’ underutilized resources are combined and made available for a single task. Grid computing is used by organizations to complete complicated problems or massive jobs that are hard to complete on a single computer.

Grid computing diagram

Grid Computing history

When academic and scientific institutions started pooling computer processing power from several places in the early 1990s, grid computing had its start. Because the concept of resource sharing and accessibility is comparable to that of an electrical power grid, the term “grid” was adopted.

The following are significant turning points in the development of grid computing:

GiPhyN (Grid Physics Network) and the European DataGrid project

These late 1990s and early 2000s programs enabled large-scale resource sharing and scientific cooperation.

Adoption by industry

It was used by sectors outside of academics, such as healthcare, engineering, and finance, by the early 2000s.

Cloud computing

It is still relevant even though cloud computing‘s ascent in the late 2000s gave distributed computing a new paradigm.

Grid computing continues to be a key paradigm for collaborative research and large-scale data processing. Large jobs or complicated problems that are hard to complete on a single computer are handled by groups using it.

What makes grid computing significant?

It is used by organizations for a number of reasons.

Effectiveness

It allows you to divide a large, complicated work into several smaller ones. Grid computing is an effective computational solution because it allows multiple computers to work on the subtasks simultaneously.

The price

Because grid computing utilizes pre-existing hardware, computers can be reused. You can access your surplus computational resources and save money. Additionally, you can utilize cloud resources at a reasonable cost.

Adaptability

Grid computing is not limited to a particular structure or area. A grid computing network that covers multiple regions can be established. This makes it possible for researchers from several nations to collaborate using the same supercomputing capability.

Components of grid computing

A network of computers collaborates to complete a task in grid computing. The elements of a grid computing network are as follows.

Nodes

Nodes are the computers or servers that make up a grid computing network. Every node provides the grid network with unused computational resources like CPU, memory, and storage. Additionally, you can use the nodes to carry out unrelated operations at the same time. In grid computing, the number of nodes is infinite. Control, provider, and user nodes are the three primary categories of nodes.

Grid computing Middleware

Grid middleware is a customized software program that links high-level applications to computational resources used in grid activities. It manages, for instance, your request to the grid computing system for more processing power.

To keep the grid computers from becoming overloaded, it regulates how users share the resources that are available. In order to stop resource abuse in grid computing, the grid middleware also offers security.

Grid computing Architecture

The internal organization of grid computers is represented by grid architecture. Generally speaking, a grid node contains the following layers:

• High-level applications, including those used for predictive modeling, make up the top layer.
• Applications request resources, which are managed and distributed by the second layer, also referred to as middleware.
• The available computer resources, including CPU, memory, and storage, make up the third layer.
• The computer can connect to a grid computing network through the bottom layer.

What is Distributed computing?

When a collection of networked computers share software components, this is referred to as distributed computing. Nonetheless, a single, cohesive interface will be visible to program users. One instance of a distributed computing system is an online search engine. By submitting the request to multiple servers, it enables you to search a particular website.

Distributed Computing Vs Grid computing

The goal of distributed computing is to accomplish one thing at a time. Grid computing, on the other hand, distributes network resources among several linked subtasks rather than acting in unison. Multiple distributed computing systems may make up a grid computing network.

What is Cluster computing?

A network system made up of uniform computers is referred to as cluster computing. The hardware and software of homogeneous computers are identical. To establish a computer cluster that performs related activities, you can link them to a fast local network. The machines are managed and coordinated by a centralized server.

Cluster vs Grid computing

The tasks, control structure, and hardware used in cluster computing are strict and specialized. Grid computing, on the other hand, offers resource sharing flexibility. On a grid network, computers operate autonomously and are not required to share resources. During runtime, their resource management distributes unused resources.

Grid vs cloud computing

A client-server computer architecture with centralized resource management is referred to as cloud computing. A pay-per-use service is offered. Because of cloud computing, the system is always available.

The term “grid computing” describes a network of computers, either of the same or different sorts, whose goal is to create an environment where several computers may work together to complete a task when necessary. Every computer is also capable of operating on its own. Organizations employ Grid Computing internally.