Storage Grid

Synonyms

Data grids; Content delivery networks; Peer to Peer network; Distributed databases; Cloud computing; Utility computing

Definition

In grid computing, storage and computing resources are geographically spread out and accessed via fast wide-area networks. Storage resources could either co-exist with computing resources, or they could exist separately from the computing resources. Databases, file systems or block storage devices can be accessed remotely across fast wide-area network based grids. A storage grid provides services for discovering storage resources, transferring data, recovering from unfinished data transfer failures, data authentication/encryption services, and data replication services for performance and availability purposes. Storage grids also typically provide the necessary mapping layers to access data from heterogeneous sources. Heterogeneity can be due to differences underlying system architectures, data formats, protocols used to access the data, and data...