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.
