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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