INTRODUCTION TO GRID COMPUTING AND ITS BENEFITS IN COMPUTER ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Computers today have great processing power, even on the lowliest of machines. During an average working day, most of this computational potential lies unutilized by a user. The standard tasks for an average user’s computer vary very little, usually including word processing, Internet browsing, spreadsheets and presentations. These tasks use a small percentage of the processor’s potential. The rest is idle, wasting a resource which could otherwise be harnessed. In a grid computing environment, computers are linked together, so that a task on one machine could utilize the unused processing power on another machine to
execute their tasks faster. This arrangement minimizes wasted resources and increases efficiency considerably, as a task split over multiple machines takes significantly less time to computer.