Mobile grids and data grids

I’ve mentioned the possibilities of grid computing here a few times, so it probably won’t surprise you that I see a big future for grids in enterprise applications. Two very interesting articles have appeared in the past few days, and both are worth reading.

In the first, Defining a Data Grid, Cameron Purdy defines an in-memory data grid and describes its basic properties. If you can overlook the slight bias that comes from his association with Oracle Coherence, it’s an interesting read.

…In-Memory Data Grid is a data management system for application objects that are shared across multiple servers, require low response time, very high throughput, predictable scalability, continuous availability and information reliability.

Nikita Ivanov’s Grid Computing blog is one of my favorites for its fresh ideas. I’m particularly interested in the possibility of a grid built on what today’s mobile devices can do, as described in Ad-Hoc Cloud Grid Computing With Google Android and Mobile Grid Computing — Coming Of Age.

mobile grids will require new business models or approaches. I can clearly see, for example, large operators like AT&T or Verizon offering discounted or free services in exchange for having a mobile device participate in the grid — while reselling this processing capacity to other businesses. Let’s say you get free 1000 any-minutes if you let your phone to crunch some small tasks while you are not talking… not a bad deal!