Grid Computing Explained

An anonymous reader writes "What's different between Grid computing and P2P, CORBA, cluster computing, and DCE? This article provides a cursory analysis of the similarities and differences between Grid computing and such distributed computing systems as P2P, CORBA, cluster computing, and DCE."

CORBA?

[TheRealMindChild]

CORBA doesn't even FIT into this article, and it is painfully clear when you read it. If this wasn't a free object model, I would say the autor is stretching to sell something, but since that can't be the case, then what is it?

Re:CORBA?

[roboros]

Oddly enough, WSDL and SOAP are mentioned, but never really discussed. And the would be probably better suited than CORBA.

WSDL and SOAP are used [globus.org] in version 3 of the Globus Toolkit [globus.org], which is a well-known open source grid toolkit. In that version, all grid services are Web Services.

Re:The problem with Grids

[Jim_Maryland]

We are currently looking at grid computing for running CPU intense algorithms for preprocessing data streams. We are also looking at using P2P technologies for handling data between the systems (although this creates issues in our case for data backups - at least with our current implimentation). In our case, JXTA seems to be the appropriate route, but we are considering others as well.

Most people do not work in scientific computing facilities

True, most people are not involved in this sort of work. Over time, the developments in Grid computing may benefit other applications.

Re:The problem with Grids

[natmsincome.com]

Apart from raytracing [it-berater.org] the only other experiance I've had with grids is compiling using distcc [samba.org]. Apple has also brought out xcode [apple.com] which does the same thing. Basically think of anything that takes a long time and can be done in parallel. For compiling it make allot of sense. It means that instead of taking 1 hour and 1 minutes to compile it only takes 10 minutes. Add up how many times you compile the product and it adds up to alot of time that can be spent testing or debuging instead of waiting for the program to compile.

As for not many problems that can be solved using grids well how many things do you know of in this day and age that take longer than an hour to complete or require more than 3 computer(web server, web service, database) to run? If you don't know many/any they you won't really need grid computing either. It's not for you just like most people don't need a real time OS either but if you do then you don't have much choice.

Re:The problem with Grids

[Uma Thurman]

It's different because it's a all-in-one solution. Do you run 17 different versions of Oracle? Do run 9 different hardware platforms? The vendors who provide grid computing can not only provide the hardware resources, they can consolidate systems onto common platforms. This helps the grid computing move overall, and it helps the customer reduce the number of platforms they live on. Any large organization will be able to save costs this way.

You're right on though. Grid computing is really similar to outsourcing, but the offerings lately are more complete than they have been in the past.