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The Grid
The name 'The
Grid' comes from analogy with the Electricity Power Grid
where there is transparent access to electricity through
standard interfaces such as plugs and sockets. The
complexity of generation and supply is hidden from end
users. The idea of Grid technology is exactly the same as
electricity, and other utilities, where access to computing
resources could be like access to electricity, a client
connects a standard device to the utility and pays for it
according to the amount that they use. The World Wide Web,
an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global
information sharing, was designed at CERN, the European
Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva by Tim Berners-Lee in
1989. The idea then was to facilitate exchange of
information among scientists working on different computers,
perhaps at different sites. In fact, the Web gives
ubiquitous access to distributed information. While the Web
is aimed mainly at the exchange of information, the Grid is
concerned with the exchange of computer power, data storage,
access to large databases and sharing of sensors. The Grid
will give ubiquitous access to distributed computing
resources and hence will bring extreme computing power to
your door step. You simply submit your job to 'the Grid'.
You shouldn't have to know where the data is physically, or
where the job will run. The Grid middleware will take care
of running the job where the data is or moving the data to
where there is CPU power available. The following are some
facilities of the Grid:
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Large-scale resource
sharing on a global scale including compute power,
storage, software, data and instrument
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Computing as a utility
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Secure access to resources
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The death of distance
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Single Sign-on
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Delegation
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