Since we announced Cascade, SingleHop’s new cloud hosting platform, some of our clients have asked us how cloud computing relates to gird computing. Cloud computing and grid computing are related concepts, in that they both involve sharing computer resources and distributing work across networks. However, there are important differences between the two, and they should not be viewed as interchangeable solutions. With that in mind, here’s a quick comparison of the two.

Grid Computing

Grid computing is a method of distributing large projects  across a network of connected computers, each of which does a small amount of the overall work.

One of the largest and best-known examples of grid computing is the SETI@home project, which uses millions of home computers to analyze radio signals from space, in an attempt to find evidence of intelligent life on other planets. By using small amounts of processing power on many computers, SETI@home operates as a supercomputer, capable of performing trillions of calculations per second.

Smaller grids are often found in university laboratories and in other environments where users need to analyze very large amounts of data.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing, on the other hand, is a method of providing resources to many different users via the Internet. The resources provided can include software, operating systems, and hosting services, and they may reside on one server or on multiple servers, depending on the size of the network. Resources are provided on demand to each user, and users have no need to know which server they are using or how many other people are accessing the network.

The key concepts behind cloud computing are that resources are stored on computers other than the user’s own computer, and that the network has the flexibility to provide additional resources to users on an as-needed basis. More than anything else, this flexibility is what differentiates grid computing from cloud computing. A grid network may allow a single user or process to consume all available resources, creating a need for other users to wait or to reserve resources in advance, while a cloud network should always accommodate multiple requests at once as it self regulates demand and supply to all its users.

Despite the differences, cloud computing and grid computing are not mutually exclusive concepts. A grid computing network can be used for cloud computing, if it allows multiple users to access network resources on demand.

One often-overlooked advantage of cloud computing is the environmental benefit of moving resources from local computers to the web.

As worldwide computer usage increases at an exponential rate, the amount of electricity consumed by computers is increasing almost as rapidly. Cloud computing can help reduce energy consumption (and related greenhouse gas emissions) by centralizing computer power and driving the development of more efficient technologies. This is one of the many reasons we here at SingleHop are so excited about Cascade, our new cloud hosting platform.

In a recent report on the environmental effects of cloud computing, Greenpeace predicts that global carbon emissions caused by computer use will nearly double by the year 2020. The report identifies server farms and data centers as having great potential to reduce these emissions by choosing locations which rely on renewable energy (such as Google’s facility in Oregon or Yahoo’s new site in upstate New York).

On a smaller scale, cloud computing can help businesses reduce consumption and lower costs, especially through the use of cloud-based hosting. Compared to owning servers or operating a dedicated data center, cloud hosting allows businesses to conserve resources in two ways: by reducing material consumption, and by lowering electrical usage.

The material savings of cloud hosting are fairly obvious: since companies which use cloud hosting are relying on off-site servers, they are not buying servers of their own, nor are they buying any of the other materials they would need to support them: server racks, cables, backup power supplies, and so on.

The savings in electrical costs are just as significant, because cloud hosting does not require a separate server or server cluster for each client—the machines are already up and running to serve other sites in the cloud. So, not only do cloud-hosting clients save the power their own dedicated servers would have consumed, they also save the electricity they would have used on environmental controls, monitoring equipment, and security systems, greatly reducing their carbon footprint.

Cloud computing has moved from the high-level fringes to the mainstream in the last few years, and one of the main reasons has been the increasing popularity of “software as a service.”

Software as a service (SaaS) is web-based software which allows the user to access an application or database from any computer with an Internet connection, as opposed to traditional software, which has to be installed on a local computer. SaaS has been in use for more than ten years and has become a major segment of the software market, especially in business applications.

The first major SaaS provider was Salesforce.com, which was founded in 1999 and provided an online sales management system. Dozens of new applications were developed in the early 2000’s, but the era of SaaS truly began in 2006, when Amazon launched its EC2 platform and Google introduced Google Apps.  Since then, growth in the segment has been tremendous– the IT research firm Gartner Inc. estimates that SaaS, which represented 5% of business software revenue in 2005, will account for 25% of the market by 2011.

Why is SaaS growing so rapidly? Because it’s easy to implement, it requires no up-front capital investment, and it is well suited to a business environment in which workers often use multiple computers and mobile devices to do their jobs.

The key difference between SaaS and traditional software is that the software license is associated with a specific individual, rather than a specific computer. This means that a licensed user can access the application from any computer with an Internet connection, rather than being tied to one computer or having to buy multiple licenses.

Since SaaS applications reside on the software provider’s servers, SaaS consumes essentially no IT resources on the client side. Software maintenance, upgrades, and often even training are handled by the provider. This also greatly speeds up implementation—a SaaS program can be rolled out to a large group of users almost overnight, while traditional implementations might take months, significantly reducing the software’s usefulness to its purchaser.

‘Cloud hosting’ can be an ambiguous term. That ambiguity can make shopping for cloud hosting difficult. How are you to know what type of cloud hosting you need when you can hardly define it? Much like their Cirrus and Cumulonimbus brethren in nature, cloud hosting platforms come in a number of shapes and sizes, but also like their puffy floating namesake, once you learn a little bit about how cloud hosting works, it’s not hard to figure out what type of cloud you are.

At a very high level, there are only a couple of different configurations a cloud hosting account can take. But the differences between these configurations are very important. When you lease a dedicated server, you get your own machine and your own resources. These resources are devoted entirely to your operations; you can use them to serve web pages, crunch numbers or attempt to calculate the “great question of life, the universe, and everything.”

Because the server’s entire resources are devoted to you and available to you at will, you can freely deploy these resources within the servers limitations. In a shared hosting account, you share a server with a lot of other people. Because there are many people using the server, your usage is restricted. Chances are, you won’t be able to calculate 42, but you will be able to serve up web pages. The difference between shared and dedicated clouds is very similar to the difference between shared hosting and dedicated servers.

Private or Public Cloud?

A public cloud is similar to a shared hosting account because you share one common infrastructure with many different people. A shared cloud generally means that you purchase resources on a utility-computing model.

Wikipedia defines cloud hosting as “Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand, like electricity.” In a public or shared cloud, if you need more electricity (server resources) then you can simply use more and you will be charged for more. If you’re going be out of town, you can turn the lights off (stop using resources) and you won’t be charged at all. Public clouds offer a lot of flexibility in both directions, and are great for businesses that have rapid-fire-like spikes in utilization that are difficult to predict in advance.

However, because public (shared) clouds do share resources, there are a lot of concerns about privacy and security. Also, because they are shared, the end users typically are unable to make certain changes to the server configuration, and work within the bounds of the cloud computing environment.

Private (or dedicated) cloud hosting is very similar to shared (public) cloud hosting on a number of levels. Like a shared cloud, servers on a dedicated cloud can scale upwards and upwards, adding resources as needed on the fly. This means that, like a shared cloud, there is theoretically no limitation to computing power and expansion. As additional resources are required, additional virtual machines can be added. As resource requirements diminish, the virtual machines can be scaled down to take up minimum resources.

However, unlike shared cloud platforms, dedicated clouds offer devoted resources. Like dedicated servers, they are entirely isolated from other sites or users, and thus are devoted 100% to you and to calculating your plans for world domination (or whatever you would do with such awesome computing power!) A dedicated cloud also has one additional advantage, and that is privacy and security. Again, because the cloud is private and isolated, no one else can use it or get into it. Thus, it is appropriate to use a dedicated cloud to handle sensitive information where one may be concerned about security and privacy.

Now live and active, the Singlehop Community Forum is flourishing. Its only been just days since its debut, and already the community is growing rapidly as clients and staff utilize this technological learning tool.

Besides a wealth of client-generated questions and answers, you’ll find tutorials designed by the staff, as well as by the Community. Utilize the forum for basic sales related questions, or start a thread to get other clients feedback on technical issues or third party suggestions.

http://community.singlehop.com/forum.php

The Community was created so clients can speak to other customers and collaborate with our tech team. Here you can learn about new SingleHop launches and use the collective knowledge to better managing your own solutions.

We also have a General Forum section where you may introduce yourself, or learn about our staff and what they like to do during off hours. The Community is definitely a fun and informative way that allows us to get more acquainted with our clients, both personally and professionally. We strive to be a different type of hosting provider, one that treats every client as both a valued customer and with whom we can build a personal relationship with. So if you are interested in learning more about us then check out our community section and give us your feedback.

Some Note Worthy Threads:

• (DDoS Protection) http://community.singlehop.com/dedicated-server-discussion/76-what-about-ddos-protection.html
• (Cloud Computing) http://community.singlehop.com/cascade-cloud-computing/
• (Potential clients that have sales Questions)  http://community.singlehop.com/sales-questions/
• (Meet the Staff and Introduce yourself) http://community.singlehop.com/general-discussion-introduce-yourself/
• (Learn about me aside from the WebHosting industry) http://community.singlehop.com/general-discussion-introduce-yourself/227-i-have-arrived-meet-miguel.html