Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
major difference of Cloud Computing to Grid Computing is virtualization and
adjustment of provided resources to demand. Thus, Cloud Computing extends
the spectrum to which virtualization can be applied.
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Different relationships among resource providers:
The goal of Grid Computing
is creation of VOs with clear up-front commitment of the involved parties and
encoding of agreements and polices in the software. Cloud Computing elimi-
nates the need for an up-front commitment by Cloud users, thereby allowing
companies to start small and increase hardware resources only when there is an
increase in their needs (see also Armbrust et al. 2009).
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Different scope of offerings:
Grid Computing clearly focuses on providing infra-
structure as a service, or utility computing. Cloud Computing provides an inte-
grated support for IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Given this, Cloud Computing makes the
development of SaaS applications easier.
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Extended scope of interfaces to the user:
Grid Computing allocates heteroge-
neous resources to one task and focuses on communication among different
resources on the physical layer and towards the application running on it. The
Grid interfaces are rather based on protocols and APIs and by that only usable
by technical experts. Cloud Computing is designed to provide interfaces for
end users over Web browser or through APIs. Thereby there are different and
specific APIs on each layer (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS). Given the higher level of
abstraction and the different interfaces, Cloud Computing is suitable to address
end users in the B2C and C2B market at the same time.
To summarize, Grid Computing provides the means to share and unify heteroge-
neous computing resources. It is the starting point and basis for Cloud Computing.
Cloud Computing essentially represents the increasing trend towards the external
deployment of IT resources, such as computational power, storage or business appli-
cations, and obtaining them as services.
