[Beowulf] What's the category of Beowulf among Clusters?

[Lux, James P]

On 12/19/08 9:44 PM, "Mark Hahn" <hahn at mcmaster.ca> wrote:

>>> "grid" is a marketing term for "loosely coupled distributed clustering";
>>> it was a trendy word 10 years ago, but has fallen into disuse because
>>> it's so generic (and not all that widely applicable).
>>
>> I always thought the idea was to charge for computing as a service (just
>> like the electrical utility). Actually, many firms are doing this now.
>> Amazon, for example.
>
> the Cloud is the new Grid ;)
>
> I don't think Grid did much to make money, though there was a lot of talk
> about how Grid would bring utility computing - as easy as plugging into a
> wall socket.

I think the problems with that model are more to do with non-computing
issues than with "making it work".  Things like assuring information
security are a big deal for anyone who has serious money to spend on the
computation.  It's one thing to distribute SETI at home, totally another to
distribute, say, MRI processing or FEM models of your new widget design
or...