Grid Computing

The term “Cloud Computing” was proposed in the year 1950s that gives internet-related services and it emerged from distributed computing to the current technology called cloud computing. Then Grid computing was proposed in the year the 1990s and it came into existence after the invention of cluster computing. As the computing structure includes different computers or nodes, in this case, the different nodes are placed in different geographical places but are connected to the same network using the internet.

Grid Computing

Grid Computing comes under the evolution of cloud computing which includes all the nodes that are located in different locations. It has heterogeneous nodes that are located in a different company. Some nodes are set ideal and these nodes can be combined to perform any one task. It is highly preferable to perform complex activities as there are many computers or nodes involved in the same network.

Features of Grid Computing

The reason behind the usage of grid computing is −

• Reduced Cost − A separate setup for grid computing is not needed and it can be installed in the existing computers. For data storage purposes cloud services can be used.

• Efficiency − When a large task is given, it can be broken down into pieces and each small task can be assigned to each node thus making the process faster and more efficient.

• Flexible − Its function is not limited to the building or a region, the computers can be implemented anywhere around the world and can be accessed through the network.

Applications of Grid Computing

• Computational Biology − Using grid computing, we can create a model of the human brain and also use it for mapping human genomes.

• Cost of Applications − After the introduction of grid computing, it greatly decreased the cost of applications that are used to design a model in the Field of Engineering.

• Resource Sharing − When an institute needs a central hub with the resources and is capable of sharing with the persons, then grid computing can be used that act like a single virtual organization.

• Movie Industry − It is particularly used by the production of the movie industry, to add the effects to the scenes and helps in producing the movie faster.

Working of Grid Computing

The computer or node raises a request for the resources and then the control node will be used to provide access to the users to choose the resources in the network. The node can be in user mode when resources are available or switch to provider mode when the resources are not available. The tasks are performed in grid computing using the three primary grid nodes namely,

User node

The user node or the computer requests for the need of resources and then gets them from other nodes of the computer. It simply uses the resources available in the network.

Provider node

It is a node or computer that shares its resources with the user nodes based on the request. When a request is received from the user node, some sort of task is performed by the nodes like forecasting the stocks needed in the future.

Control node

It is a computer with a server or group of servers that serve as an administrator and manages both the user and provider node.

Types of Grid Computing

Based on the performance, grid computing is divided into three major categories,

1. Computational grid

This type of grid computing is highly powerful and extensively used by researchers for their research purpose. Because highly powerful computers can be combined to perform any task at high speed and with accuracy.

2. Scavenging Grid

This grid helps search the resources that are available in the network and is also known as CPU scavenging.

3. Data Grid

The nodes or computer’s structure can be resized and to deal with large data, multiple computers can be attached according to the need. When the user is on the local machine, the data can be accessed at any time.

Advantages of Grid Computing

• It does not deal with central servers but rather only the control node which will switch the nodes between the user and provider node based on the resources.

• The System with different operating systems and located anywhere can also use grid computing using the heterogeneous nodes.

• The Cost of installation and usage is zero and allows the concurrent performance of tasks.

Disadvantages of Grid Computing

• Grid computing is one of the evolution steps of cloud computing and it still needs some update.

• As multiple computers in different places can be used, there will be licensing issues for the software.

• The Control node can sometimes behave abnormally and pushes the entire network down.

Conclusion

Grid Computing simply means using the resources in the network to perform tasks. Apart from the advantages, the nodes in different regions raised an issue which is the distance between the nodes. It has been used in research places, to solve mathematical and analytical problems. Followed by Grid cloud computing, web 2.0 and virtualization got their places.