Cloud Computing - The User-Friendly Version of Grid Computing

Grid Computing or Cloud Computing...the difference is purely academic

Aug. 5, 2008 01:30 PM

Cloud computing is said to be the user-friendly version of grid computing. We know grid computing brought together the high performance computers, the middleware, and strategies to utilize hundreds and thousands of computers linked by advanced networks. We know this took place in universities, research labs and medical schools around the world over many years.

The Open Grid Forum, a group working on standards in grid computing has been meeting since 1998. Out of nowhere comes cloud computing. Ebay, Amazon, and Google showed even a casual technologist what the power of grid computing was, but it was easy. It wasn't about the standards or the middleware, it was the results and the ease of use.

A Grid Today special feature story by Wolfgang Gentzsch captures the differences between cloud computing and grid computing. He suggests that grid has been got caught in the trough and to look up at the next innovation, cloud computing as the progression of grid computing to the next level - the commercial level.

"I'm sorry to say it, but, so far, grids have not kept their promise. We are stuck with grids in Gartner's 'Trough of Disillusionment.'"
Wolfgang Gentzsch

Published Aug. 5, 2008— Reads 18,543
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

Related Stories

▪ What is Cloud Computing?

▪ The Three Levels of Cloud Computing

▪ Cloud Computing: It's the Future of Enterprise IT

▪ Do You Really Want Your Data in the Cloud?

▪ Cloud Computing: I Want To Have My Cake and Eat It Too

▪ Cloud Computing: Making Analytics in the Cloud a Reality

▪ RightScale CTO to Present at SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo

▪ Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing

▪ Nirvanix CEO to Present at SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo

▪ Enomaly Founder & Chief Technologist to Present at SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo

▪ Cloud Computing - Morgan Stanley is Banking on the Cloud

▪ Cloud Computing: The SmugMug Approach to Using Amazon's EC2 and S3

▪ Cloud Computing vs. Elastic Cloud: What's the Difference?

▪ Cloud Computing - AT&T Takes to the Cloud

▪ Is Cloud Computing Right For You?

▪ Cloud Computing - Game Changing?

▪ Development Tools For Cloud Computing

▪ Merrill Lynch Estimates "Cloud Computing" To Be $100 Billion Market

▪ Twenty-One Experts Define Cloud Computing

▪ Creating a Common Cloud Computing Reference API - Part Two

▪ Cloud Computing: The Rise of Cloud Platforms and Why the OS Doesn’t Matter

▪ Cloud Computing Will Eventually Require Orchestration

▪ The Rise and Rise of Cloud Computing

▪ Cloud Computing: Securing the Cloud

▪ Who Has the Industry Lead in Cloud Computing?

▪ The Vocabulary of Cloud Computing

▪ Six Benefits of Cloud Computing

▪ Cloud Computing or Grid Computing - Which Comes First?

▪ Accenture Touts Cloud Computing for Developed Nations

▪ Cloud Computing Key to Global Online Game Growth

About Trevor Doerksen
Trevor Doerksen is CEO & Founder of MoboVivo, Inc., and business development consultant for Cybera Inc. He has been at the intersection of media and technology for nearly 20 years. He has investigated and developed large-scale implementations of streaming video and Internet TV for government and industry. MoboVivo was the first company in Canada to sell television programming online.

Latest Cloud Developer Stories

Bringing Cloud to the Business at Cloud Expo New York

By Elizabeth White

Can you bring services from the cloud to your customers faster and have them adopt it with ease of use or bring the power of bundled services to the fingertips of your clients without creating new rigid ‘apps stove pipes'? Do you want to prevent your business running away to publ...

OCZ Launches Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCI Express

By Pat Romanski

OCZ Technology Group, a provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, on Tuesday announced the Z-Drive R4 CloudServ PCI Express (PCIe) flash storage solution, designed to accelerate cloud computing applications and reduce operating expe...

Cloud Expo New York: The Compliant Cloud

By Liz McMillan

Many organizations have embraced, or are considering, the benefits of cloud computing – speed, flexibility, increased expertise, shared workload, reduced costs, etc. The benefits are many – but so are the risks. What are the threats to cloud security? Which parties assume respons...

SHI Annual Revenues Up 28% in 2011

By Elizabeth White

In August 2011, SHI Enterprise Solutions (ESS) division launched the SHI Cloud, offering reliable and cost-effective industrial-grade cloud computing platforms. That same division achieved an 82 percent increase in revenue over 2010.

SoftLayer Introduces Searchable Object Storage

By Liz McMillan

SoftLayer Technologies on Tuesday announced the immediate worldwide availability of SoftLayer Object Storage, a redundant and highly scalable cloud storage service that allows users to easily store, search and retrieve data across the Internet, with optional CDN connectivity, or ...