What is the Grid
Ian T Foster · 2002
The Need for a Clear Definition Grids have moved from the obscurely academic to the highly popular. We read about Compute Grids, Data Grids, Science Grids, Access Grids, Knowledge Grids, Bio Grids, Sensor Grids, Cluster Grids, Campus Grids, Tera Grids, and Commodity Grids. The skeptic can be forgiven for wondering if there is more to the Grid than, as one wag put it, a “funding concept”—and, as industry becomes involved, a marketing slogan. If by deploying a scheduler on my local area network I create a “Cluster Grid,” then doesn’t my Network File System deployment over that same network provide me with a “Storage Grid?” Indeed, isn’t my workstation, coupling as it does processor, memory, disk, and network card, a “PC Grid?” Is there any computer system that isn’t a Grid?