Editing Grid computing (section)

==Projects and applications==
Grid computing offers a way to solve [[Grand Challenge problem]]s such as [[protein folding]], financial [[model (abstract)|modeling]], [[earthquake]] simulation, and [[climate]]/[[weather]] modeling, and was integral in enabling the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kertcher |first1=Zack |last2=Venkatraman |first2=Rohan |last3=Coslor |first3=Erica |title=Pleasingly parallel: Early cross-disciplinary work for innovation diffusion across boundaries in grid computing |journal=Journal of Business Research |date=23 April 2020 |volume=116 |pages=581–594 |doi=10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.04.018 |s2cid=219048576 |hdl=11343/237477 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Grids offer a way of using information technology resources optimally inside an organization. They also provide a means for offering information technology as a [[utility computing|utility]] for commercial and noncommercial clients, with those clients paying only for what they use, as with electricity or water.

As of October 2016, over 4 million machines running the open-source [[Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing]] (BOINC) platform are members of the [[World Community Grid]].<ref name="BoincStats" /> One of the projects using BOINC is [[SETI@home]], which was using more than 400,000 computers to achieve 0.828 [[FLOPS|TFLOPS]] as of October 2016. As of October 2016 [[Folding@home]], which is not part of BOINC, achieved more than 101 x86-equivalent petaflops on over 110,000 machines.<ref name="FAH osstats2" />

The [[European Union]] funded projects through the [[framework programme]]s of the [[European Commission]]. [[BEinGRID]] (Business Experiments in Grid) was a research project funded by the European Commission<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.beingrid.eu/|title=beingrid.eu: Stromkosten Vergleiche -|website=beingrid.eu: Stromkosten Vergleiche|access-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723100417/http://www.beingrid.eu/|archive-date=23 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> as an [[Integrated Project (EU)|Integrated Project]] under the [[Sixth Framework Programme]] (FP6) sponsorship program. Started on June 1, 2006, the project ran 42 months, until November 2009. The project was coordinated by [[Atos Origin]]. According to the project fact sheet, their mission is “to establish effective routes to foster the adoption of grid computing across the EU and to stimulate research into innovative business models using Grid technologies”. To extract best practice and common themes from the experimental implementations, two groups of consultants are analyzing a series of pilots, one technical, one business. The project is significant not only for its long duration but also for its budget, which at 24.8 million Euros, is the largest of any FP6 integrated project. Of this, 15.7 million is provided by the European Commission and the remainder by its 98 contributing partner companies. Since the end of the project, the results of BEinGRID have been taken up and carried forward by [[IT-Tude.com]].

The Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project, based in the [[European Union]] and included sites in Asia and the United States, was a follow-up project to the European DataGrid (EDG) and evolved into the [[European Grid Infrastructure]]. This, along with the [[Worldwide LHC Computing Grid]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wlcg.web.cern.ch/|title=Welcome to the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid - WLCG|website=wlcg.web.cern.ch|access-date=14 March 2018|archive-date=25 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725112849/http://wlcg.web.cern.ch/|url-status=live}}</ref> (WLCG), was developed to support experiments using the [[CERN]] [[Large Hadron Collider]]. A list of active sites participating within WLCG can be found online<ref>{{cite web |url=http://goc.grid.sinica.edu.tw/gstat/ |title=GStat 2.0&nbsp;– Summary View&nbsp;– GRID EGEE |publisher=Goc.grid.sinica.edu.tw |access-date=July 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080320145926/http://goc.grid.sinica.edu.tw/gstat/ |archive-date=March 20, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> as can real time monitoring of the EGEE infrastructure.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gridportal.hep.ph.ic.ac.uk/rtm/ |title=Real Time Monitor |publisher=Gridportal.hep.ph.ic.ac.uk |access-date=July 29, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091216124323/http://gridportal.hep.ph.ic.ac.uk/rtm/ |archive-date=December 16, 2009 }}</ref> The relevant software and documentation is also publicly accessible.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/activities/deployment.html |title=LCG&nbsp;– Deployment |publisher=Lcg.web.cern.ch |access-date=July 29, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101117002656/http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/activities/deployment.html |archive-date=November 17, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> There is speculation that dedicated fiber optic links, such as those installed by CERN to address the WLCG's data-intensive needs, may one day be available to home users thereby providing internet services at speeds up to 10,000 times faster than a traditional broadband connection.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/|title=The Times & The Sunday Times|website=The Times|access-date=14 March 2018|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225020225/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[European Grid Infrastructure]] has been also used for other research activities and experiments such as the simulation of oncological clinical trials.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Athanaileas, Theodoros| title=Exploiting grid technologies for the simulation of clinical trials: the paradigm of in silico radiation oncology | journal=SIMULATION: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International | volume=87 | number=10 | pages=893–910 | year=2011 | doi=10.1177/0037549710375437| s2cid=206429690 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>

The [[distributed.net]] project was started in 1997.
The [[NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility]] (NAS) ran [[genetic algorithm]]s using the [[Condor cycle scavenger]] running on about 350 [[Sun Microsystems]] and [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]] workstations.

In 2001, [[United Devices]] operated the [[United Devices Cancer Research Project]] based on its [[Grid MP]] product, which cycle-scavenges on volunteer PCs connected to the Internet. The project ran on about 3.1 million machines before its close in 2007.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://altair.com/hpc-cloud-applications|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070407201958/http://www.grid.org/stats/|url-status=dead|title=High-performance Computing (HPC) and Cloud Solutions &#124; Altair|archivedate=April 7, 2007|website=Default}}</ref>

===Definitions===
Today there are many definitions of ''grid computing'':
*In his article “What is the Grid? A Three Point Checklist”,<ref name="autogenerated1"/> [[Ian Foster (computer scientist)|Ian Foster]] lists these primary attributes:
**[[Computing resource]]s are not administered centrally.
**[[Open standards]] are used.
**Nontrivial [[quality of service]] is achieved.
* Plaszczak/Wellner<ref>P Plaszczak, R Wellner, ''Grid computing'', 2005, Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco</ref> define grid technology as "the technology that enables resource virtualization, on-demand provisioning, and service (resource) sharing between organizations."
* IBM defines grid computing as “the ability, using a set of open standards and protocols, to gain access to applications and data, processing power, storage capacity and a vast array of other computing resources over the Internet. A grid is a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and aggregation of resources distributed across ‘multiple’ administrative domains based on their (resources) availability, capacity, performance, cost and users' quality-of-service requirements”.<ref>IBM Solutions Grid for Business Partners: Helping IBM Business Partners to Grid-enable applications for the next phase of e-business on demand</ref>
* An earlier example of the notion of computing as a utility was in 1965 by MIT's Fernando Corbató. Corbató and the other designers of the Multics operating system envisioned a computer facility operating “like a power company or water company”.<ref>[http://www.multicians.org/fjcc3.html Structure of the Multics Supervisor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116070940/http://www.multicians.org/fjcc3.html |date=2014-01-16 }}. Multicians.org. Retrieved 2013-09-18.</ref>
* Buyya/Venugopal<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buyya.com/papers/GridIntro-CSI2005.pdf|title=A Gentle Introduction to Grid Computing and Technologies|access-date=May 6, 2005|archive-date=March 24, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060324161402/http://www.buyya.com/papers/GridIntro-CSI2005.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> define grid as "a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection, and aggregation of geographically distributed [[Wiktionary:autonomy|autonomous]] resources dynamically at runtime depending on their availability, capability, performance, cost, and users' quality-of-service requirements".