The Grid
The term ‘Grid’ was coined by Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman to denote a system in which dispersed computing resources are made available easily in a universal way
- Getting CPU power as easy as getting electrical power out of a wall-socket ? analogy to power grid
- A resource available to a large number of people
- Reserves available when needed
- Interchangeability
- Standards are key: 110 V, 60 Hz (?!?)
- ‘Data Grid’ is used to describe system with access to large volumes of data
Grids enable “Virtual Organizations” (e.g. experiments collaborations) to share geographically distributed resources as they pursue common goals
- — in the absence of central control