There is a slight difference between grid computing and cloud computing and these two words end up confusing most of the people as they are almost similar in theory. Both grid computing and cloud computing are considered as distributed computing but the main difference in cloud systems that make them distinct is the live migration of data and application during their processes without any interruption for users.
Grid computing is a type of distributed system in which more than one computers connect with each other to perform a single goal and the computers communicate through the network by message passing. Grid computing is often used for solving problems which involve a lot of crunching and dividing the large problem into small tasks.
Cloud computing is where the application does not access the resources required directly but use cloud computing services. Instead of directly linking through memory or CPU for computation, cloud uses services like Infrastructure as a service, Platform as a service or Software as a service to access the resources which are actually required.
If we take an example of application requires an only small amount of computation resource, then it will be allocated with single physical CPU which can also be shared with other application using the service and if the application requires a large amount of CPU, it can be allocated with a grid of CPU.
Difference Between Grid Computing and Cloud Computing
Grid computing allows parallel processing on a massive scale which uses a loose network of computers combine to serve large-scale processing task. Grid computing is useful only at those places and applications where you have a big processing job to tackle.
Cloud computing involves accessing of resources on demand on the basis from clusters of servers. Clusters can handle large processing loads and cloud computing handles many smaller requests from multiple users. This providing efficiency to scale up the resources for temporary processing of data or program. Due to this, it is also called pay per use model.
Difference Between Cloud Computing and Grid Computing in Tabular Form
| Features | Cloud Computing | Grid Computing |
| Intended for | Cloud computing services offer support to the long-term services and extensively running jobs like facebook. | Grids were intended to manage large groups of short-term jobs which generate or utilize a huge amount of data like the LHC and life sciences. |
| Access | Clouds facilitate access to borrowed computing power. | Grids facilitate access to distributed computing power. |
| Providers | Cloud computing is offered by big individual firms like (i) Amazon and (ii) Microsoft. | Research organizations and academies unite their grid computing services throughout the world via projects like (i) EGI-Inspire and (ii) the European Grid Infrastructure. |
| Users | Cloud computing is used by (i) small and medium industries or (ii) analyzers with broad IT requirements. | Grid computing is used by “Virtual Organizations”(research associations) that gather analyzers throughout the world who work on the same field. |
| Mode of working | Cloud computing services are proprietary software. Hence the cloud computing resource providers alone are aware of the cloud tasks like (i) data management (ii) job queues (iii) security requirements and so on. | Grid computing services are open source software. Hence both the grid computing resource users and providers can recognize and contribute to the grid computing management. |
| Resource sharing | In cloud computing, the allocated resources are never shared. | Grid computing services are collaboration services. |
| Platform awareness | The Smart Phone (SP) software for cloud computing operates over a personalized atmosphere. | The client software for grid computing should be Grid-facilitated. |
| Virtualization | Cloud computing virtualizes (i) hardware and (ii) software platforms | Grid computing virtualizes (i) data and (ii) computing resources |
| Security | Cloud computing offers security via isolation. | Grid computing offers security via credential allocations. |
| High-level services | Cloud computing has no high-level services. | Grid computing supports numerous high-level services. |
| Architecture | In cloud computing, the architecture is preferred by the users. | Grid computing supports service-oriented architecture (SOA). |
| Software dependencies | Cloud computing software is free from application domain. | Grid computing software is dependent on application domain. |
| Workflow | Most of the Cloud computing applications does not require a planned workflow. | The grid computing applications need a planned workflow. |
| Scalability | Cloud computing offers scalability of (i) nodes, (ii) sites, and (iii) hardware | Grid computing offers scalability of (i) nodes and (ii) sites. |
| Self-management | Cloud computing services are re-configurable and self-healing. | Grid computing services are reconfigurable but not self-healing. |
| Centralization | Cloud computing services offer centralized control. | Grid computing services offer decentralized control. |
| Usability | Cloud computing services are user-friendly. | Grid computing services are difficult to handle. |
| Standardization | Cloud computing are deficient of standards (for Clouds interoperability). | Grid computing services support (i) standardization and (ii) interoperability |
| Payment | Payment model for cloud computing is flexible. | Payment model for grid computing is rigid. |
| Quality of Service (QoS) assurance | Cloud computing offers partial support to QoS and is determined on (i) availability and (ii) uptime. | Grid computing also offers partial support to QoS. |
The above block diagram will be helping you to understand what exactly the difference between cloud computing and grid computing.