What are the similarities and differences between the grid and cloud computing service model?

Cloud computing banish the need of buying the hardware and software which requires complex configuration and costly maintenance for building and deploying applications instead it delivers it as a service over the internet. On the other hand, in grid computing, a cluster of computers work together to solve a massive problem by splitting it into several small units which are distributed over computers (part of a grid).

In Cloud computing, the resources are centrally managed whereas in grid computing resources are distributed where each site has its own administrative control.

Content: Cloud computing Vs Grid computing

1. Comparison Chart
2. Definition
3. Key Differences
4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

Definition of Cloud computing

Cloud computing is a modern computing paradigm which provides scalable and flexible IT infrastructure and essential services to the users through the internet. It allows omnipresent, on-demand, convenient network access to a partitioned pool of configurable computing resources such as networks, services, storage, application and servers that can be immediately served as well as released with least managerial effort.

It follows client-server architecture. Its billing method is effective where a user needs to pay according to the use or can be called as metered billing. The concept of virtualization is used in cloud, and it also uses a hypervisor (VM) through which user can run multiple operating systems.

Services offered by cloud :

• Saas (Software as a service) – This service provides the complete product applications to the users hence eliminating the needs of the underlying services where the user need not to worry about hardware and platforms for the generation of the final product. Even the updation, licensing and maintenance is done by the service provider. For example, Google Apps, Salesforce etc.
• Paas (Platform as a service) – These types of service emphasizes on providing a high-level integrated environment to design, build, test and deploy an online custom application, eliminating the need of Iaas for the users. For example, Google’s App Engine, Microsoft Azure provides Paas services.
• Iaas (Infrastructure as a service) – This service provides computing resources on virtual or dedicated hardware, the services offered by Iaas are network, disk storage, processing power, etc. AWS, Eucalyptus, Open stack and Flexiscale are some of the Iaas providers.

There are four types of cloud deployment models which are – public cloud, private cloud, community cloud and hybrid cloud.

Definition of Grid computing

Grid computing serves computing resources such as network, server, applications to the individual users. Grid involves the loosely coupled systems in which jobs are managed and scheduled in a distributed way. It divides a massive job in smaller chunks and processes those chunks separately. Grid computing is a combination of non-centralized computing resources where each geographically separate, independent site has its own administrative control over it.

In grid computing, the resources are reserved that is the reason it is not flexible and scalable as cloud computing. It follows distributed architecture. Grid computing projects do not have any time dependency associated with them, and it uses hardware present in the grid and which are in idle state.

Key Differences Between Cloud computing and Grid computing

1. The applications build on the cloud are business specific applications such as web-based application typically used by thin clients or for handheld devices. On the other hand, Grid focuses on the research-based application with the help of distributed independent administrative units working altogether for solving a larger computing problem.
2. Cloud uses client-server architecture, in contrast, grid uses distributed computing architecture.
3. The cloud computing infrastructure is operated by a centralized management whereas in grid computing there is a decentralized management system where different sites are spread globally, and each site has an independent administration.
4. The cloud users pay as they use (i.e., utility pricing or metered billing), where a user doesn’t have to pay as he/she releases the resources. As against, there is no defined business model in grid computing.
5. Services on the cloud are highly flexible and real-time and it can scale up rapidly. On the contrast, the grid provides scheduled services with low flexibility.
6. Grid infrastructure can deal with interoperability with ease whereas cloud doesn’t support interoperability and can lead to vendor lock-in, which makes it hard to migrate from one cloud service provider to another.
7. Resources can be pooled in a centralized or seldom in a decentralized manner in Cloud computing. On the other hand, resources are used in a decentralised manner in grid computing.
8. In grid infrastructure, the resources are limited while in the cloud there is a magnificent pool of resources. Grids can be made using cloud infrastructure.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is emerging technology and is a descendant of Grid computing. Cloud computing provides real-time user-friendly services on a dedicated, high bandwidth internet connection and unlimited resources but its main disadvantage is that it needs a high-speed internet connection. Grids are heterogeneous, loosely coupled and geographically distributed and better than traditional clusters. Although security could be a major issue while using grid computing.

Grid computing and cloud computing are conceptually similar that can be easily confused. The concepts are quite similar and both share the same vision of providing services to the users through sharing resources among a large pool of users.

Both are based on network technology and are capable of multitasking meaning users can access a single or multiple application instances to perform different tasks.

While grid computing involves virtualizing computing resources to store massive amounts of data, whereas cloud computing is where an application doesn’t access resources directly, rather it accesses them through a service over the internet.

In grid computing, resources are distributed over grids, whereas in cloud computing, resources are managed centrally. Let’s take a brief look at the two computing technologies.

What is Grid Computing?

Grid computing is a network based computational model that has the ability to process large volumes of data with the help of a group of networked computers that coordinate to solve a problem together.

Basically, it’s a vast network of interconnected computers working towards a common problem by dividing it into several small units called grids. It’s based on a distributed architecture which means tasks are managed and scheduled in a distributed way with no time dependency.

The group of computers acts as a virtual supercomputer to provide scalable and seamless access to wide-area computing resources which are geographically distributed and present them as a single, unified resource to perform large-scale applications such as analyzing huge sets of data.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a type of internet-based computing where an application doesn’t access the resources directly, rather it makes a huge resource pool through shared resources. It is modern computing paradigm based on network technology that is specially designed for remotely provisioning scalable and measured IT resources.

It allows on-demand access to a shared pool of dynamically configured computing resources and higher-level services thereby eliminating the need of massive investments in local infrastructure. The computing resources are managed centrally which are located over multiple servers in clusters. Users can access software and applications from wherever they need without worrying about storing their own data. It simply breaks down to “pay only for what you need”.

Difference between Grid Computing and Cloud Computing

– Grid computing is form of computing which follows a distributed architecture which means a single task is broken down into several smaller tasks through a distributed system involving multiple computer networks. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is a whole new class of computing based on network technology where every user of the cloud has its own private resource that is provided by the specific service provider.

– Both are network based computing technologies that share similar characteristics such as resource pooling, however, they are very different from each other in terms of architecture, business model, interoperability, etc. Grid computing is a collection of computer resources from multiple locations to process a single task. The grid acts as a distributed system for collaborative sharing of resources. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is a form of computing based on virtualized resources which are located over multiple locations in clusters.

– Grid computing is based on a distributed system which means computing resources are distributed among different computing units which are located across different sites, countries, and continents. In cloud computing, computing resources are managed centrally which are located over multiple servers in clusters in cloud providers’ private data centers.

– In grid computing, computing resources are provided as a utility with grids as a computing platform that are distributed geographically and are grouped in virtual organization with multiple user communities to solve large-scale problems over the internet. Grid involves more resources than just computers and networks. Cloud computing, on the other hand, involves a common group of system administrators that manage the entire domain.

– The main function of grid computing is job scheduling using all kinds of computing resources where a task is divided into several independent sub-tasks and each machine on a grid is assigned with a task. After all the sub-tasks are completed they are sent back to the main machine which handles and processes all the tasks. Cloud computing involves resource pooling through grouping resources on an as-needed basis from clusters of servers.

– The term “cloud” refers to the internet in cloud computing and as a whole it means internet-based computing. The cloud manages data, security requirements, job queues, etc. by eliminating the needs and complexity of buying hardware and software needed to build applications which are to be delivered as a service over the cloud. Grid computing is mostly used by academic research and is able to handle large sets of limited duration jobs that involve huge volumes of data.

Grid Computing vs. Cloud Computing: Comparison Chart

Summary of  Grid Computing Vs.  Cloud Computing

Both grid computing and cloud computing are network-based computing technologies that involve resource pooling, but cloud computing eliminates the complexity of buying hardware and software for building applications by allocating resources that are placed over multiple servers in clusters.

Grid computing, on the contrary, is a computing technology that combines computing resources from various domains to reach a common goal.

The computers on the network work on a task together and every computer can access the resources of every other computer within the network.

In simple terms, grid computing is a group of interconnected computers that work together to handle huge volumes of data.

Help us improve. Rate this post!