| Certain types of applications have already been very successful using grid computing. Scientific projects, such as the SETI@home project run by the University of Berkeley in California, have been a spectacular success. Here the Internet is used to send small packets of data to over 4 million PC users in a grid. The results are analyzed on the client processor and sent back to Berkley for further analysis, and another packet sent for processing. This project has been running since early 1999 and the statistics are astonishing. -
Since it's start in May 1999 over 4.8 million people have signed on from over 230 countries. -
At any given moment, 475 thousand machines are working fulltime on the problem. -
Results are being returned at a rate of over a 1 million files per day (34 trillion calculations per second, roughly equivalent to a 249-teraHz supercomputer). Each day over 1,000 years of CPU time is used. -
A new participant signs up on the Grid every 58 seconds. -
To date the total CPU time used is approaching 1,900,000 YEARS. Some observers claim that it is the biggest computing project ever undertaken. No doubt, the success of the SETI@home project has spurred the development of grid computing and illustrated what can be accomplished. Table 11.1 further illustrates other types of applications that can be used with grid computing. These applications have been successful for a number of years, and much has been learned about the systems design of effective grids. New applications are continuously evolving. The commercial application of grid computing is in its early stages of development. It requires a different approach to conventional application or systems management. If the application can be split into one or more different subapplications, it can run on a grid. This is not easily achieved and requires considerable skill in system design and segmentation, as well as considerable programming skill to be successful. Table 11.1. A Sample List of Grid Computing Applications | Grid Computing Application | Application Description | | Oil and gas exploration | | | Astronomical data analysis | -
Data-processing projects, such as the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI@home, project | | New drug development | | | Motion picture animation | | | Biomedical applications | | | Financial Services | | | Consumer services | | | Manufacturing | | | Energy | | | Other examples | -
Collaborative research -
Weather forecasting |
Many new software tools are needed to convert existing applications to a grid environment. This technology will accelerate as the need intensifies and vendors introduce the much-needed set of software tools to make grid computing applicable for commercial enterprises. New computation-intensive applications should be designed and written for parallel execution so that they can be easily grid-enabled. |
