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

Er. Bijoy Boban (Reg No: 11200402, Roll No: A09)

Lovely Institute of Technology and Sciences (School: K2, Session: 209)

Lovely Professional University

Phagwara, India-144411

April 2013

Abstract - Cloud computing is the current most trendy and social technology that has been launched on the network world which can also be called as a reincarnation or evolution of Grid computing, so the Clouds are considered as a new generation of Grid computing. These Clouds consist of data centres which are owned by individual institute, organisations or companies. The homogeneity within each data centre in the infrastructure is the main feature for the cloud computing compared to grid computing . Cloud Computing has become another most used word on internet after Web 2.0. There are many definitions for Cloud computing and there seems to be no consensus on what a Cloud is. Cloud Computing is not a completely new concept, it has intricate connection to the relatively new but thirteen year established Grid Computing paradigm and other relevant technologies such as utility computing, cluster computing, and distributed systems when we go through the structure and working of a Cloud.

Keywords- Cloud computing, Grid computing, SAAS (Software As A Service), IAAS (Infrastructure As A Service), PAAS (Platform As A Service).

I. INTRODUCTION

In this paper we give a comparative analysis between the latest in market Cloud computing and the famous through Google architecture, the back born of Google networks, the Grid computing. Cloud computing emerged as one of the trend setting and speed oriented technology in networks. Cloud computing is made with the logical and physical combination of many other sectors of computing technology such as HPC, virtualization, utility computing and grid computing, so as we said in the abstract cloud was an evolution from grid computing. In order to make clear the importance of cloud computing, we are giving a detailed description of the characteristics of this area which make cloud computing being cloud computing and distinguish it from other research areas like grid computing. The main characteristics of cloud computing that make it distinct from others are service oriented, loose coupling, strong fault tolerant, business model and easily usable by any internet user. Now let us consider grid computing at the other end, Grid computing in the simplest case refers to cooperation of multiple processors on multiple machines and its objective is to boost the computational power in the fields which require high capacity of the CPU [3]. In grid computing multiple servers which use common operating systems and software have interactions with each other. Grid computing is hardware and software infrastructure which offer a cheap, distributable, coordinated and reliable access to powerful computational capabilities, i.e. why grid computing stayed in the market for over 14 years and still under use.

From the overview on the above explanations we can say that Cloud Computing represents a novel and promising approach for implementing scalable ICT systems for individuals, communities and business use, relying on the latest achievements of diverse research areas such as Grid computing, Service oriented computing, business processes and virtualization. From the technological point of view Grid computing is considered as the most related predecessor technology of Cloud computing. Although Cloud and Grid computing differ in many aspects, as for example in the general idea of the provision of computational resource which is in Clouds commercial based and in Grids community based there are many similarities. In this term paper we investigate the similarities and differences between Clouds and Grids by evaluating two successful projects and also evaluating various features, fault tolerance, security, service and other aspects.

II. CLOUD, GRID AND DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM

You might have immediately notice that our definition of Cloud Computing overlaps with many existing technologies such as Grid Computing, Utility Computing, Services Computing, and distributed computing in general. We argue that Cloud Computing not only overlaps with Grid Computing, it is indeed evolved out of Grid Computing and relies on Grid Computing as its backbone and infrastructure support. The evolution has been a result of a shift in focus from an infrastructure that delivers storage and compute resources (such is the case in Grids) to one that is economy based aiming to deliver more abstract resources and services (such is the case in Clouds). As for Utility Computing, it is not a new paradigm of computing infrastructure; rather, it is a business model in which computing resources, such as computation and storage, are packaged as metered services similar to a physical public utility, such as electricity and public switched telephone network. Utility computing is typically implemented using other computing infrastructure (e.g. Grids) with additional accounting and monitoring services. A Cloud infrastructure can be utilized internally by a company or exposed to the public as utility computing. See Figure 1 for an overview of the relationship between Clouds and other domains that it overlaps with. Web 2.0 covers almost the whole spectrum of service-oriented applications, where Cloud Computing lies at the large-scale side. Supercomputing and Cluster Computing have been more focused on traditional non-service applications. Grid Computing overlaps with all these fields where it is generally considered of lesser scale than supercomputers and Clouds [2].

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Figure 1: Grids and Clouds Overview [2]

Grid Computing aims to enable resource sharing and coordinated problem solving in dynamic, multi-institutional virtual organizations [12][13]. There are also a few key features to this definition: First of all, Grids provide a distributed computing paradigm or infrastructure that spans across multiple virtual organizations (VO) where each VO can consist of either physically distributed institutions or logically related projects/groups. The goal of such a paradigm is to enable federated resource sharing in dynamic, distributed environments. The approach taken by the de facto standard implementation – The Globus Toolkit [14][15], is to build a uniform computing environment from diverse resources by defining standard network protocols and providing middleware to mediate access to a wide range of heterogeneous resources. Globus addresses various issues such as security, resource discovery, resource provisioning and management, job scheduling, monitoring, and data management. Half a decade ago, Ian Foster gave a three point checklist [16] to help define what is, and what not a Grid is:

- Coordinates resources that are not subject to centralized control, - Uses standard, open, general-purpose protocols and interfaces.

- Delivers non-trivial qualities of service. Although point 3 holds true for Cloud Computing, neither point 1 nor point 2 is clear that it is the case for today’s Clouds.

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”.

– 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.

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