InformIT Articles and Sample Chapters

"Introduction to Grid Computing", by Joshy Joseph and Craig Fellenstein, a sample chapter from Grid Computing (IBM Press, 2003, ISBN 0131456601), provides basic information on grid, as well as an explanation of the various applications and infrastructure involved.

"Introduction to the Sun Cluster Grid, Part 1", (and part 2) by Sun Microsystems isn't about the type of Grid that uses web services, but it's worth looking at as another look at distributed systems.

"Building a Global Compute Grid - Two Examples Using the Sun ONE Grid Engine and the Globus Toolkit", by Sun Microsystems explains how to build a grid application using the Globus Toolkit (perhaps the most common) and then looks at integrating it with the Sun ONE Grid Engine.

"Building Sun-Based Beowulf Cluster", by Sun Microsystems is not so much about Grid Computing, but is an interesting look at "compute clusters", which serve some of the same purposes.

"Global Grid Connectivity Using Globus Toolkit With Solaris Operating System", by Sun Microsystems describes integrating the Globus Toolkit software with a site using Sun N1 Grid Engine software (formerly Sun Grid Engine) as a local resource manager. It also has step-by-step instructions for installing, configuring, integrating, and testing Globus Toolkit software with Sun N1 Grid Engine software.

"Jini and JavaSpaces: Enabling the Grid", by Scott Chalfant and John Anthony, provides an introduction to grid computing and gives an overview of Jini and JavaSpaces, part of the tools and frameworks that support the development of grid-aware services. It also talks about grids versus clusters.

"The Grid: It's Not All Academic", by April Wells is a good basic introduction to grid computing.

"N1 Grid Architecture Realized: Strategic Flexibility", by Sun Microsystems. is more about the architectural and business issues that surround grid computing than it is about actually creating a grid, but it's a good backgrounder if you're serious about implementation in a corporate setting.

"The Scope of Network Distributed Computing", by Max Goff a sample chapter from Network Distributed Computing: Fitscapes and Fallacies (Prentice Hall PTR, 2004, ISBN 0131001523) is an overall look at different schemes for network distributing computing, and compares grid to options such as peer-to-peer, clusters, and massively parallel systems.

"Sun Grid Engine, Enterprise Edition—Configuration Use Cases and Guidelines", by Sun Microsystems provides sample use cases for configuration of a grid system.

"A Short Treatise on Distributed Computing", by Alex Vrenios is a brief historical trip through the Computing Age, looking at the progression of technology, from the early calculating devices that culminated in the "electronic brains" of the late 1940s, to the latest software-defined architectures for cluster servers and supercomputers. Alex also speculates about some architectural changes on the horizon and a few possible applications in our future.

Books

Grid Computing by Joshy Joseph and Craig Fellenstein (Prentice Hall PTR , 2003, ISBN 0131456601) is a great place to start to unravel all of the different groups, intiatives, and approaches that are floating around in grid computing at the moment. This is the place to start to get a grounding before moving on. (Preview this book on Safari)

Introduction to Grid Computing with Globus by Luis Ferreira, Viktors Berstis, Jonathan Armstrong, Mike Kendzierski, Andreas Neukoetter, MasanobuTakagi , Richard Bing-Wo, Adeeb Amir, Ryo Murakawa, Olegario Hernandez, James Magowan, Norbert Bieberstein (IBM, 2003, ISBN 0-7384-9988-9) provides a foundation in grid computing by explaing how to set up and use the Globus Toolkit. (Preview this book on Safari)

Enabling Applications for Grid Computing with Globus by Bart Jacob, Luis Ferreira, Norbert Bieberstein, Candice Gilzean, Jean-Yves Girard, Roman Strachowski, and Seong (Steve) Yu (IBM, 2003, ISBN 0-7384-5333-1) is a follow-on to Introduction to Grid Computing with Globus, discusses the issues and considerations for enabling an application to run in a grid environment, with programming examples based on the Globus Toolkit V2.2. It addresses various considerations related to grid-enabling an application, from the perspective of the infrastructure, the application, and the data requirements, as well as programming examples in C/C++ and Java to help solidify the concepts of grid computing and the types of programming tasks that must be handled when developing an application intended to run in a grid environment. (Preview this book on Safari)

Building N1™ Grid Solutions: Preparing, Architecting, and Implementing Service-Centric Data Centers by Jason Carolan and Scott Radeztsky, Paul Strong and Ed Turner. (Prentice Hall PTR., 2004, ISBN ) starts with the theory involved in a grid and moves on to the analysis, implementation, and optimization. It also includes two case studies so you can see how things actually work.

Patterns for Parallel Programming by Timothy Mattson, Beverly Sanders and Berna Massingill (Software Patterns Series, 2004, ISBN 0321228111) gets down deep, to the fundamental issue underlying grid computing: parallel programming. This book tries to do for parallel programming what design patterns did for object oriented programming, providing a way for developers to really understand what's going on so they can "think parallel".

Network Distributed Computing: Fitscapes and Fallacies by Max Goff (Prentice Hall PTR, 2004, ISBN 0131001523) Networked distributed computing (NDC) systems are driving an ongoing technological revolution that has already spawned the Internet and will soon transform the world into one ubiquitous, pervasive "information field." this book reviews the field's crucial challenges, state-of-the-art solutions, and breathtaking future. It covers both the "trees" and the "forest"-showing how NDC has evolved, where it's headed, and above all, what it all means.

Autonomic Computing by Richard Murch (Prentice Hall PTR, 2004, ISBN 013144025X) isn't about grid computing per se, but about a potential application of it. Check out this book to get a handle on where grid might eventually go.

Specifications, Implementations, and other Resources

Perhaps the first place to look for Grid Computing specifications and information is The Globus Alliance, creators and maintainers of the Globus Toolkit, a group of software packages intended to enable a complete kit. You can also find links to the Web Services Resource Framework.

Grid-related specifications are mulled over by the Global Grid Forum, a community-based intiative that also maintains a great deal of information at its GridForge.

Grid.Org provides a window into and an opportunity to join numerous grid-enabled projects, most of them medical-research-based.

If you think that Grid Computing is just an intellectual exercise, and that "nobody's actually doing it" you should check out GridComputing.com, where you'll find an extensive list of activities, initiatives, and tools, as well as numerous opportunities to provide some of your unused computing power in the fight against AIDS, the Human Genome Project, or of course the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.

Other Grid-centered tools and software