Cloud Computing vs. Grid Computing
Author: Chris Armer
Two such solutions are Grid Computing and Cloud Computing. In order to make the most advantageous choice, it is important for a business to understand the differences between each type of computing solutions
The following outlines the differences between Grid Computing and Cloud Computing:
Grid Computing: Grid Computing is computing technology that includes a combination of computer resources that offers seamless access to computing power and data storage capacity distributed over the globe. Special software is used to separate and outsource parts of a program as one large system image to multiple computers. Users utilizing grid computing will not perform system administrator tasks as systems administrators are involved with installing, upgrading, and virtualizing servers and its applications. The technology has a failover component on one node to prevent a failure of one part of the software on a node to impact the entire system. Grid computing systems require a significant financial investment because hardware and other components have to be acquired. Users can provision computing resources to turn ‘on' or ‘off' so it can work as a work utility.
Cloud Computing: Developed from grid computing technology, cloud computing technology offers highly flexible on-demand provisioning of its resources. Over-provisioning is eliminated as Cloud computing has on-demand resource provisioning which helps enterprise significantly cut IT costs. The customer does not own the platform, infrastructure, or software in the cloud. With cloud computing, users have the ability to scale up to larger capacities at a moment's notice without having to purchase new computing infrastructure, hire more IT computing experts, and they do not have to license software. Cloud computing operates on a utility basis where users pay for only the resources they use which makes it a more economical computing choice. As well, the computing infrastructure involves connecting various computers across multiple servers making it a large virtual environment which allows users to harness the power and performance of the many resources available.
With cloud computing, enterprise can outsource their data infrastructure ensuring data remains safe and secure in the event of a disaster such as a power outage. Another benefit for business is companies can avoid the high costs of creating an internal data center that is secure. The cloud provider maintains the servers and networks and the sharing of resources among a large pool of users decreases infrastructure costs and peak load capacity. As long as users have access to a computer device and the internet, they can access the server from anywhere.
Although Cloud Computing and Grid Computing both offer high scalability, multitasking, and multitenancy, however the Cloud offers better storage solutions because with grid computing, it is not economically beneficial for storing very small data. The choice of computing technology for each business will depend on their particular business IT infrastructure needs and requirements
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About the Author
Chris Armer appears courtesy og Gigenet.com.Find out more information on grid computing and cloud computing at Gigenetcloud.com
