Grid Computing

Abstract

-Grid computing refers to a distributed architecture of a large number of computers connected to solve a complex problem. It allows the computers on the network to work on a task together, behaving like a supercomputer. The major advantage of grid computing is that it reduces the time taken to complete tasks, without increasing costs.This paper provides a brief introduction to grid computing. Keywords: grid computing, distributed computing I. INTRODUCTIONThe availability of powerful computers and high-speed computer networks such as the Internet is changing the way computing is done. These new technologies have led to all kinds of computing such as parallel computing, distributed computing, cloud computing, utility computing, cluster computing, mobile computing, and grid computing. The term "grid computing" was first used in the early 1990s as a metaphor for making computer power as easy to access as an electric power grid. It was first established in the early 1990s by Carl Kesselman, Ian Foster and Steve Tuecke, who are widely regarded as the "fathers of the grid." Grid computing was inspired by the electrical power grid. It involves computation in a distributed manner. Grid technologies leverage the computational power of the available computers by managing them in the grid infrastructure. Grid or distributed computing is a special type of parallel computing that relies on complete computers connected to a computer network. The grid may be small or large [1].A grid consists of parallel nodes that form a computer cluster, which runs on an operating system. Different forms of grids now exist including power grids, computational grids, access grids, and data grids. Computers on a grid may not be in the same geographical location, and can be spread out over many countries and owned by several organizations with different policies. The computing grid integrates networking, computation and information to provide a virtual platform for computation and data management infrastructure that provides the electronic foundation for operating in business, government, research, science and entertainment.Grid computing is a computer network in which every computer can access the resources of every other computer connected to the network. Enormous processing power, memory and data storage are resources that authorized users can leverage for performing specific tasks. A grid architecture is shown in Figure 1 [2]. The benefits of grid computing include effective use of resources, save processing time, improves methods for collaborative work, and resource balancing and reliability [3].

The “Social” Side of Big Data: Teaching BD Analytics to Political Science Students

“…In addition to the comprehensible expectations for the positive consequences that Big Data will have on the various fields of social sciences [11], there are currently at least two principal disciplines that try to merge computing and the social sciences, namely computational social science [12] and the more recent (thanks to social media data) social computing [13]. The teaching experience examined in this paper belongs to the latter discipline, as the authors think that, when it comes to entering the job market, Political Science students may be more competitive in those skills related to social media and human-computer interactions.…”