Grid computing yet to energize the physical world

(Click) The seven challenges (01 Nov 2001), in general, continue to be real for us in Orissa. Are we ever going to be able to overcome these challenges? Challenge #6 still poses the question: How to make the virtual space complement the physical space? Though technology is making rapid advances, organizations are lagging behind in terms of realizing the potential benefits.

The global computing grid has been unveiled by CERN to handle real-time data related to particle physics research. Click this link for details (Oct 03, 2008) titled "Computer grid links 7,000 scientists around the globe"by Jonathan Lynn, Reuters. Here is an excerpt:

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The data flow will be about 700 megabytes per second, or 15 million gigabytes a year for 10 to 15 years – enough to fill three million DVDs a year or create a tower of CDs more than twice as high as Mount Everest.

“To analyze that amount of data, you require not only a lot of computing but a new computing paradigm – that's what we call the Grid, and that's what we're here to celebrate today,” CERN spokesman James Gillies told a press briefing.

Just as the Worldwide Web – invented in 1990 at CERN – allows users to share access to information over the Internet, computer grids allow the linking of computing resources such as data storage capacity and processing power.

CERN has only 10 per cent of the computing capacity needed for the LHC experiment, which will allow scientists to observe sub-atomic particles and probe the nature of gravity and matter. The grid will provide the rest.
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