| Sumario: | This article discusses how grid computing's biggest problem is that nobody can agree what it is. When is a grid not a grid? According to many in the computer industry, grid computing--which roughly means the harnessing of the collective processing power of many computers in different places--is here today, and is already widespread. Yet according to others, grid computing, while promising, is still years away from becoming a reality. A grid, he proposed, should co-ordinate computing resources that are not centrally controlled, rely on open standards, and provide more reliability than stand-alone machines. Wolfgang Gentzsch, a former grid guru at Sun Microsystems who is now director of MCNC, North Carolina's statewide grid initiative, says the term "grid" really refers to this ultimate goal, towards which today's systems are merely stepping stones.
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