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Grid Computing Meets Web Services?

Posted by Hemos on from the combine-'em-together dept.

jgeelan writes "According to an article in the current issue of Web Services Journal, by ex-IBM, ex-Vitria Technology, ex-IONA middleware maven Dirk Hamstra, the open source initiative known as OGSA, the Open Grid Services Architecture, is poised to bring utility-based computing a step closer. "The combination of Web services and grid computing," Hamstra writes, "virtualizes networked resources using common computing standards, making them accessible to a larger audience." Amazing what a little R&D money from IBM, a prime grid-computing mover, can achieve."

3 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Other companies are already working on this ... by DanEsparza · · Score: 4, Informative
    Just wanted to point out that other companies are already working on this concept, too. 'The Mind Electric' has a very nice set of existing Java based web-services tools.

    They are apparently expanding this toolkit to a 'grid service platform' called 'Gaia' detailed here.

    From the website:

    GAIA is a service-oriented grid-computing platform that connects producers and consumers of services and data while shielding them from issues like fail over, load balancing and clustering. GAIA can connect and control web services hosted on any combination of platforms, and uses a P2P architecture for reliability and scalability.

    GAIA is based on simple yet powerful concepts, can run on machines ranging from enterprise servers to wireless PDAs, and has native implementations for Java and Microsoft .NET.

  2. Re:Finally a relevant Post by benjfowler · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, relevant but wrong. Sorry :)

    Grid computing and clustering technologies are on opposite ends of the parallel computing scale.

    On one hand, you have a grid, which is a framework meant to aggregate computing capacity and peripherals from potentially widely-separated machines, taking into account things like unreliable and insecure networks, resource metering, multiple domains of control, etc.

    On the other hand, you have a bunch of beige boxes tightly integrated via a system-area network. Latency between the nodes is far lower, compared to your average grid technology, and you don't have to solve any of the security or accountability problem either.

    Each calls for a different style of application development too. In systems where IPC is really expensive, you want to minimise it as much as possible. Not all apps that are written to run on a Beowulf cluster will necessarily port straight over to a grid framework. However, for apps that can be made to run well on a grid, the potential computing power available is far, far greater.

  3. grid computing sites by jukal · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here is a little collection of grid computing related companies, organisations and projects. If there is something crucial missing, let me know :)