Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing

Differences Between Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing

In the constantly changing industry, we have many changing processes, technologies and terminologies. You need to be constantly updated since many processes are too similar to be distinct but they are distinct in their own way. One such topic of confusion is cloud computing and grid computing. Mainly, both Cloud Computing and Grid Computing are used to process tasks. However, grid computing is used in cloud computing but it is not a cloud or part of it. They both involve massive computer infrastructures and managing them. Both Cloud Computing and Grid Computing concepts have been developed for the purpose of distributed computing, that is, computing an element over a large area, literally on computers that are separated by some or the other means.

Let us have a look at the differences and help you understand how Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing is different.

Head to Head Comparison Between Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing (Infographics)

Below is the Top 5 Comparison Between the Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing

Key Differences Between Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing

Though both Cloud Computing vs Grid Computing technologies is used for processing data, they have some significant differences which are as follows:

Cloud computing is delivering computing services like servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics and more over the internet. Companies providing this service are cloud providers and charge you according to your usage. Grid computing, on the other hand, is distributed computing. There are different computers on the same network which share same resources. Every resource is shared on a computer making it a supercomputer. Processing power, memory and data storage needs to be done by authorized users and cloud computing leverages for specific tasks.
Cloud computing has different types of services like IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. These are Infrastructure, Platform, and Software. By these services, the cloud provides servers and virtual machines (VMs), on-demand environments for development, testing, delivering and managing software applications and providing software applications over the Internet, on demand and typically on a subscription basis. It also has different deployments like a public, private and hybrid. These help in deploying resources publicly, privately or both. Grid computing, on the other hand, has distributed computing and distributed pervasive systems. A distributed computing architecture consists of a number of client machines with very lightweight software agents installed with one or more dedicated distributed computing management servers. Pervasive computing uses embedded microprocessors in a day to day objects and allows them to communicate information. It helps to choose any device like kitchen appliances or any chip which could be embedded.
When cloud computing comes into picture only single ownership is used. Whereas a grid has many systems in a network and hence multiple people can have ownership. Virtualization helps in providing cloud better security.
Grid computing is more economical. It splits the work and distributes it over the network on computers increasing the efficiency as well. Cloud computing is costlier and requires initial setup. But it is faster and has quicker data restoration.