Grid Computing was a vision of using and sharing computers and data in the early
1990s. The integration, coordination, and sharing of computer resources which are
geographically disperse among different physical domains and organizations
became an every day reality. This emerging infrastructure aims to provide a mechanism
for sharing and coordinating the use of heterogeneous computing resources.
The term “Grid” is used as an analogy with the electric power grid, which provides
pervasive access to electricity. Grid Computing has its roots in e-Science and
has evolved from parallel, distributed, and high-performance computing. Grid
Computing is a dominating technology that has undoubtedly changed the landscape
of computer science. During these years, Grid Computing achieved to overcome
every obstacle and challenge, and comprised an incontrovertible paradigm for future
computer networks.
Up to now, this new evolving technology achieved to provide to its users the ability
to utilize at maximum the existing resources across a network. Grid Computing
takes collective advantage of the vast improvements that have occurred over the last
few years, in microprocessor speeds, optical communications, storage capacity, the
World Wide Web, and the Internet. A set of standards and protocols are being developed
that completely disaggregate current compute platforms and distribute them
across a network as resources that can be called into action by any eligible user or
machine at any time.
The continuous progress in scientific research demanded for computational
power leading to more and more powerful computer platforms in order to be able to
solve high-resource demanding scientific problems. Many research projects and
varied applications such as astrophysics, biology, chemistry, drug discovery, ecological
modeling, mathematics, operations research, physics, and complex simulations
are now driven by Grid Computing.
The explosive growth of computer science influenced the Information
Technologies (IT) departments which have a vital role in shaping and conducting
businesses orientation. The organizations focused on a more efficient utilization of
their IT resources leveraging competition through a flexible and cost-effective infrastructure
that fosters innovation and collaboration.
