Grid Computing
The concept of 'grid' comes from the electricity industry. The electrical grid is a network of infrastructure components that generate, transmit and distribute electricity. Today, the first stage of grid computing, the cluster grid, enables organizations to better utilize available compute resources. As grids evolve from cluster to enterprise to global grids, grid computing will provide seamless, transparent, secure access to IT resources such as hardware, software and services. Like electrical power, this access will be dependable, consistent, and pervasive.