Grid Computing

From Blindside

1 What is it
2 Impact & Maturity assessment
3 Information Assurance issues
4 Timescale
5 Examples
6 Comments (attributed)
7 Organisations
8 Documents & research papers
9 Experts (academic, practitioner)

[edit] What is it

Grid computing is an emerging computing model that treats all resources as a collection of manageable entities with common interfaces to such functionality as lifetime management, discoverable properties and accessibility via open protocols. Wikipedia

IBM’s definition of Grid Computing:

Grid computing allows you to unite pools of servers, storage systems, and networks into a single large system so you can deliver the power of multiple-systems resources to a single user point for a specific purpose. To a user, data file, or an application, the system appears to be a single enormous virtual computing system. [1]

Computing grids are conceptually not unlike electrical grids. In an electrical grid, wall outlets allow us to link to an infrastructure of resources that generate, distribute, and bill for electricity. When you connect to the electrical grid, you don’t need to know where the power plant is or how the current gets to you. Grid computing uses middleware to coordinate disparate IT resources across a network, allowing them to function as a virtual whole. The goal of a computing grid, like that of the electrical grid, is to provide users with access to the resources they need, when they need them. [2]

Grids address two distinct but related goals: providing remote access to IT assets, and aggregating processing power. The most obvious resource included in a grid is a processor, but grids also encompass sensors, data-storage systems, applications, and other resources. One of the first commonly known grid initiatives was the SETI@home project, which solicited several million volunteers to download a screensaver that used idle processor capacity to analyze data in the search for extraterrestrial life. In a more recent example, the Telescience Project provides remote access to an extremely powerful electron microscope at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research in San Diego. Users of the grid can remotely operate the microscope, allowing new levels of access to the instrument and its capabilities. [3]

[edit] Impact & Maturity assessment

[See definition of levels]

We assign this an Impact Level of 2, as proper business rules would eliminate risk exposure to dependency on outside vendors for computing availability. We assign this a Maturity Level of 1, as there is a paucity of credible providers for this. When and if this becomes a real factor in IT decisions, the information assurance risks could be reduced by the goverment being a provider of these services.

[edit] Information Assurance issues

On Grid security, Eric Ogren, security analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group Milford, says:

To control access to sensitive data, grid systems must have authenticated access control, SSL communications, filtering and auditing of sensitive data, and erasure of data after use. Similarly, grid hosts must ensure that a previous user or intruder has not left something potentially nasty behind: all code must be wiped out. [4]

Grid computing and security uncertainties

Grid Computing's Promises And Perils

[edit] Timescale

Currently, most successful deployment of grid computing exists in the areas of physics and scientific research; however, very little has been done in business and organizations. So it would take 2-5 years for its commercialization.