Grid computing

Abstract

The vision of Grid computing is to develop a platform which gathers geographically distributed resources (such as computational power, data, and equipment) into one very powerful and easy to use system. In this chapter, we present the main motivations behind this technology. Furthermore, we outline the challenges that researchers need to face when constructing such a complex distributed system. To demonstrate the practical impact, we describe various tools and applications which are already been extensively used to solve real problems. Finally, we give some pointers to the future directions in which Grid computing will evolve. © 2009 Springer London.