Brief introduction of cloud computing bring IT industry change

Source: Internet
Author: User
Keywords cloud computing

Today, the world's IT industry is undergoing a mighty "cloud" computing process. BusinessWeek recently published a commentary article stating that the advent of cloud computing technology has enabled people to gain access to software and computing power directly through web applications that will bring a huge disaster to traditional IT enterprises and that cloud computing Is becoming a new trend in the IT industry. Even though the full definition and scope of cloud computing has not been established yet, there are multiple explanations and interpretations. But what is certain is that it will affect or even change our lives. With the steady increase of Internet connection speed and the constant update of Internet software, the tasks that cloud computing can accomplish will be more and more comprehensive.

Perhaps everyone will first ask what is cloud computing. It should be said that Cloud Computing is the development of Distributed Computing, Parallel Computing and Grid Computing, or the commercial realization of these computer science concepts.

The rationale for cloud computing is that the enterprise data center will run more like the internet by having it distributed across a large number of distributed computers rather than on local computers or remote servers. This enables businesses to switch resources to the applications they need, accessing computers and storage systems on demand.

At the moment, PCs are still at the heart of our daily work life: we use PCs to process documents, store data, and share information with others via e-mail or thumb drive. If the PC hard drive is broken, we are at a loss as data is lost. In the "cloud computing" era, "cloud" will do for us to store and calculate the work. The "cloud" is a computer cluster, each consisting of hundreds of thousands or even millions of computers. The benefits of "cloud" lie in the fact that the computers in it can be updated at any time to ensure the "cloud" is immortal.

Grid computing technology

On the other hand, we can not fail to mention the grid computing technologies currently being used. Grids are a series of distributed computing resources provided over a local area network or wide area network. For end users or applications, this is like a large virtualization computer. The idea is to create a virtual, dynamic organization by enabling secure and coordinated resource sharing among individuals, organizations and resources. Grid computing is a method of distributed computing that includes not only enabling but also organizing, hardware, and software to provide unlimited capabilities so that everyone connected to the grid can collaborate and access information. Grid computing is also a method used in distributed computing, but it can be said that in many ways, cloud computing is a quantum leap in grid computing.

Comparison of cloud computing and grid computing

First, we can make comparisons in terms of grid computing job scheduling. Job scheduling is the core value of grid technology. The goal of grid is to use all kinds of resources as much as possible. Through specific grid software, it decomposes a huge project into countless independent sub-tasks that are not related to each other, and then it is calculated by each computing node. Even if a node has a problem, it fails to return the result in time and does not affect the entire project process. Even if one of the compute nodes collapses suddenly, its computational tasks can be assigned by the task dispatch system to other nodes to continue.

Cloud computing, like grid computing, builds all resources into a huge pool of resources, but one of the resources that cloud computing provides outwards is to accomplish a specific task. For example, a user may need to apply a certain amount of resources from a resource pool to deploy his application, rather than submitting his task to the entire grid. From this point of view, the construction of the grid is mostly for the purpose of fulfilling a specific task. There are also a variety of grid projects such as biological grids, geographic grids, and national education grids. The cloud computing is generally designed for general-purpose applications, there is no specific grid named for some application.

Second, cloud computing will produce four bells in three major areas: the impact on Internet applications, the impact on product application modes, and the impact on lT product development. Of course, the so-called change is not a complete subversion, but a new feature added. This advantage is a challenge to grid technology. Grid computing also has the following advantages: Through any one computer can provide unlimited computing power, you can access vast voluminous information. This environment will enable businesses to address previously unmanageable problems, to use their systems to the most efficiency, to meet customer demands and to reduce the total cost of ownership and management of their computer resources.

But for cloud computing, it is a big extension of these advantages. In the future through the cloud computing, more applications can be carried out in the manner of Internet services. Cloud computing will expand the extension of hardware and software applications and change the application mode of hardware and software products. Through the cloud computing, users can get the application environment or the application itself without purchasing a new server and deploying software. For users, hardware and software do not have to be deployed on their own, dedicated to their own products, but can be turned into an available, virtual resources. Moreover, the hardware and software resources that can be utilized are not limited to the devices and software within their own enterprises, but rather extend the hardware and software resources available through the network. IT product development direction will also change in order to adapt to the above two cases.

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