Benefits of grid computing

As already stated, in addition to CPU and storage resources, a grid can provide access to other resources as well. The additional resources can be provided in additional numbers and/or capacity. For example, if a user needs to increase their total bandwidth to the Internet to implement a data mining search engine, the work can be split among grid machines that have independent connections to the Internet. In this way, total searching capability is multiplied, since each machine has a separate connection to the Internet. If the machines had shared the connection to the Internet, there would not have been an effective increase in bandwidth.

Some machines may have expensive licensed software installed that users require. Users’ jobs can be sent to such machines, more fully exploiting the software licenses.

Some machines on the grid may have special devices. Most of us have used remote printers, perhaps with advanced color capabilities or faster speeds.

Similarly, a grid can be used to make use of other special equipment. For example, a machine may have a high speed, self-feeding DVD writer that could be used to publish a quantity of data faster. Some machines on the grid may be connected to scanning electron microscopes that can be operated remotely. In this case, scheduling and reservation are important. A specimen could be sent in advance to the facility hosting the microscope. Then the user can remotely operate the machine, changing perspective views until the desired image is captured.

The grid can enable more elaborate access, potentially to remote medical diagnostic and robotic surgery tools with two-way interaction from a distance.

The variations are limited only by one’s imagination. Today, we have remote device drivers for printers. Eventually, we will see standards for grid-enabled device drivers to many unusual devices and resources. All of these will make the grid look like a large system with a collection of resources beyond what would be available on just one conventional machine.