- SURVEY REPORT: A COMPARISON AMONG DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING, GRID COMPUTING AND CLOUD COMPUTING
Background Information
Distributed computing (DC) refers to a collection of hardware and software systems that contain more than one processing or storage element but appearing as a single coherent system running under a loosely or tightly controlled regime. A key feature of such a system is that the computers/devices in the system do not share a memory but they coordinate their work/s by passing messages asynchronously or synchronously. Grid computing (GC) is a form distributed system whereas cloud computing (CC) is a style of grid computing. While the DC, GC and CC share similar key features as systems, they can be quite different from each other. For example, some people simply view cloud computing as an environment in a user’s machine that uses the internet to access someone else’s software running on someone else’s hardware in someone else’s data center.
You are requested to conduct a survey on cloud computing (i.e., a survey primarily on cloud architecture/s, modes of clouds, key features/properties and advantages and disadvantages of using CC, etc.), and make comparison among DC, GC and CC in terms of similarity/difference, scalability, benefit and cost, security/privacy, and so on. Your view on how to move cloud computing to its full potential is also requested.
Based on your research, write a report presenting your research outcomes. Your report should not be longer than 15 A4 pages, including text, figures and tables; an assignment cover sheet should be used. Figures/diagrams/tables should be with captions and numbered and cited in the text; the references should be denoted in text and fully listed in ‘References’; and a Table of Contents page should also be included if your report consists of multiple sections.
