Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
• Grid Computing enables cost savings in the IT departments of companies due
to reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) (Insight Research 2006, Boden 2004).
Instead of investing in new resources, greater demand can be met by higher utili-
zation of existing resources or by taking advantage of utility computing.
• Grid Computing enables greater scalability of infrastructure by removing limita-
tion inherent in the artificial IT boundaries existing between separate groups or
departments (McKinsey 2004).
• Grid Computing results in improved efficiency of computing, data and storage
resources (Insight Research 2006) due to parallel CPU capacity, load balancing
and access to additional resources (Berstis 2002). As computing and resources
can be balanced on demand, Grid Computing results also in increased robust-
ness (McKinsey 2004) and reliability (Berstis 2002) - failing resources can be
replaced easier and faster with other resources available in the Grid.
• Grid Computing furthermore enables a more efficient management of distributed
IT resources of companies. With the help of virtualization, physically distributed
and heterogeneous resources can be better and uniformly managed. This makes
possible to centrally set priorities and assign distributed resources to tasks.
• In combination with Utility Computing, Grid Computing enables the transfor-
mation of capital expenditure for IT infrastructure into operational expenditure
and provides the opportunity for increased scalability and flexibility. However,
the usage of Utility Computing results in higher security and privacy risks.
Overall, Grid Computing has the potential to improve price for performance of
IT in companies (McKinsey 2004). The increased flexibility and scalability of IT
resources and the ability to faster adjust business processes to new business needs
results in advantages on the business level. Potential quantifiable advantages on the
business level are summarized below:
• Improved performance and time-to-market (Boden 2004, McKinsey 2004)
• Lower costs and increased revenues due to improved processes (Boden 2004)
Further benefits on the business level that cannot be easily quantified can be summa-
rized as follows:
• Improved collaboration abilities (Boden 2004)
• Improved sharing (Boden 2004)
• Improved possibility to create a VO with external business partners (Insight
Research 2006).
The potential benefits of Grid Computing described above have to be compared
with related risks and challenges. The major challenges of Grid Computing applied
within company boundaries can be summarized as follows:
• Grid Computing is a new computing paradigm that requires considerable change
in processes but also in the mindset of involved people. Careful and well-organ-
ized change management should prevent phenomena as “Sever hugging” - the
unwillingness of some departments to share their resources (Goyal and Lawande
2005).
