Concepts and Architecture

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the purpose, evolution, architecture, and implementation of Grid systems. Grid technologies provide mechanisms for sharing and coordinating the use of diverse resources and thus, enable the creation, from geographically and organizationally distributed components, of virtual computing systems that are sufficiently integrated to deliver the desired qualities of service. These technologies include security solutions that support the management of credentials and policies when computations span multiple institutions; resource management protocols and services that support secure remote access to computing and data resources and the co-allocation of multiple resources; information query protocols and services that provide configuration and status information about resources, organizations, and services; and data management services that locate and transport data sets between storage systems and applications.