What is Grid?

Oracle 10g what is so unusual about this name? Well, I can see your reaction - obviously its "g". I know a lot of you must be thinking of so many ideas related to this letter "g". This letter "g" here is only in smaller in case but has huge horizon. It is called as GRID. Now we will try to explore what exactly this Grid computing does for Oracle and why it is so important for this version. What makes it better than older versions of Oracle like 8i and 9i.

Grid may be defined as a distributed system that enables sharing, selection and assimilation of geographically distributed resources. This synchronisation takes place in real time between the connected resources to make the best out of the individual units and produce the best results based on the performance, cost, availability, capacity and application requirements.

Why Grid ?
Grid is considered good in many ways as I discussed earlier, it gives the best of the performance and availability for the application systems and also reduces the cost of maintaining the high transaction and very large databases. The Grid is better than clusters as they are managed differently than the clusters. In case of Grids, each node has its own resource manager and don't aim for providing a single system view. In case of clusters, the resource allocation is performed by a centralised resource manager and all nodes cooperatively work together as a single unified resource.

Why Oracle introduced Grid computing in 10g?
Oracle has been using the concept of parallel server since version 8 and has made it better in version by introducing the concept of RAC (Real application clusters). The RAC also had some shortcomings which were quickly realised by Oracle and they overcome those bottlenecks in their release 2 of version 9i. These shortfalls were related to the performance, cost and high availability factors. Introduction of grid in the oracle 10g took a leap beyond the expectations of the Architects and system administrators. It also helped the resource allocation and optimal utilisation which overall impact business cost.

What are the advantages of using Grid?
Best of the Performance results.
High availability.
Security and encryption.
Scalability and Self-management.
Cost effective network architecture.
Simple and manageable.
Robust and flexible.

What is applicability of Grid?
Grid applications are usually implemented in the high transaction and high data transfer applications. These applications may involve Travel industry, CRM, Retail, Banking, Insurance, Healthcare, Manufacturing, complex multi-system network, Business Intelligence, Datawarehouse appications, etc. These types of industrial applications look for the best and optimised results in blink of eye. This target can only be achieved by the grid computing. The real life examples include Amazon, Google, Ebay, Yahoo, MSN, Wal-mart, Bank of America, British Airways and the list goes on.

Does your client, company or application use Grid features?. Please send in your valuable comments and feedback so that I may include more topics in my next discussion. Thanks for your valued time. Have a great day.