Cloud computing and Grid computing are the two words that end up confusing many people as they are similar in theory. Cloud computing and Grid computing involves a massive computer network infrastructure.
On the front end, cloud computing and grid computing are newer than other large computing solutions. Both concepts have been developed for distributed computing, that is, computing an element over a large area, literally on computers separated by some other means.
Well there are many reasons people prefer Distributed computing over single-processor computing, and here they are:
- Opting for distributed computing means offering parallel or concurrent computational resources to users. The queue concept has been overtaken. Requests don’t have to wait in a queue to get serviced one after the other.
- Distributed computers make use of every spare moment your processor is idle.
- Distributed computing systems are made up of many systems, so if one crashes other is unaffected.
- The distributed model scales very well. Need more compute resources? Install a client on additional desktops or servers.
Cloud computing vs Grid computing
To understand the basic and complex differences between cloud and grid computing, we really need to explain both technologies. Here’s how they are defined.
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is basically an extension of the object-oriented programming concept of abstraction. Here, cloud means the Internet. For end-users, it is just getting outputs for certain inputs; the complete process leading to the outputs is purely invisible. Computing is based on virtualized resources placed over multiple servers in clusters.
Also within the “cloud computing” family are what’s known as an SPI model SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. These services are available on the cloud and do all the heavy lifting using someone else’s infrastructure. Cloud computing eliminates the costs and complexity of buying, configuring, and managing the hardware and software needed to build and deploy applications; these applications are delivered as a service over the Internet (the cloud).
Grid computing
Grid systems are designed for collaborative sharing of resources. It can also be thought of as distributed and large-scale cluster computing. A Grid uses the processing capabilities of different computing units to process a single task. The task is broken into multiple sub-tasks; each machine on a grid is assigned a task. When the sub-tasks are completed, they are sent back to the primary machine, which takes care of all the tasks. They are combined or clubbed together as an output.
Conclusion
- Server computers are still needed to distribute the pieces of data and collect the results from participating clients on the grid.
- Cloud offers more services than grid computing. In fact, almost all the services on the Internet can be obtained from the cloud, eg web hosting, multiple Operating systems, DB support, and much more.
- Grids tend to be more loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed than conventional cluster computing systems.
Now read: Public Cloud vs Private Cloud difference.
Let me know if you have any questions.
UPDATE: In the interest of clarity, based on the comments received, certain lines/sections of the post have been suitably edited.
This might be a dumb question but is grid computing kind of like a mesh network set up for the architecture of the network? I’m just now starting to study systems management, so there’s a lot of things that interest me relative to different topologys and network architecture.
Yes , kind of.. grid is usually deployed to get services from different ends or computers than to heavily rely on one CPU. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads to be more precise. The major work is carried out on middleware. The unit that manages tasks for other processors is called as Control node, which is centralized..
Can we say?
In cloud we’ve got a hardware and we need the software?
In grid we’ve got a software but we need more hardware?
Is that it?
Absolutely…But as a developer or pro in distributed computing environment. The way data is processed is different.. But it is really worth exploring these technologies.. I think we should try to analyse how systematically requests are handled in this large concepts….
For summarizing ur words are correct…
Thanks for sharing.. :)
can you compare the two technologies based on their security issue?? i find cloud more vulnerable!!
validating of security: Maintaining and validating what’s happening in the cloud can become a secondary concern. This can lead some companies to lose track of the exact security posture of their cloud environments. though companies follow strict access, Here is find cloud little bit insecure. I think there is lot to be improved on cloud, for now i see cloud as more democratized as a person with hand full of money can experience or experiment large computational power. But for security reason cloud gives lesser control to the data flow , than in server.
Grid computing uses “Infrastructure as a service” while cloud computing uses “Software as a service”, ….Hmm…I dont agree with this statement..
Cloud computing systems deliver infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service……Grid computing systems are typically not service providers….they are generally a bunch of autonomous systems trying to solve a single problem…(the problem is generally embarrassingly parallel)….The concept of service based computing comes from utility computing (cloud computing)..
There is a philosophical difference between Cloud and Grid :
In the Grid, every person comes with his/her own plate of biryani and solves the bigger problem of eating biryani together… In the cloud, there is a huge container of biryani and people pay per gram and eat … :D
Eg: of grid : SETI@home
Eg: of cloud : Gmail, Icloud, Amazon EC2, S3, AppEngine, Force.com,etc..
if i use 3 PCs with one screen, is this Grid also ?
No that is not a Grid. The reason is the PC are not interlinked to do share the processor time. A grid could be like a PC connected to 3 printers. and you have 9 papers to print. The PC prints 3 papers on each printer concurrently. Just an example..
Can we say Cloud is more of centralized computing rather the Grid is more of distributed computing?
Cloud is not centralized in full sense. It is decentralized as well.. Example could be like. You have a web application that is stored in one data center, this is centralized and this database is replicated over different centers as well, Decentralized..
Is grid computing different from distributed computing or its a part of distributed computing?
HI
Sounds like a nice example:
Grid: Office PotLuck; People bring resources and share with others.
Cloud: More like dining at a buffet, but here only one type of buffet, reserved, but not dedicated.