Cloud Computing vs Cluster Computing
Cloud computing is a style of computing in which resources are made available over the internet. Most often, these resources are extensible and are highly visualized resources and they are provided as a service. These resources can mainly be broken down to applications, platforms or infrastructure. In cluster computing, a collection of stand-alone computers are interconnected to form a single integrated computing resource that is able to improve performance and availability than using a single computer. Clusters are mainly implemented for load balancing and providing high availability.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the emerging technology of delivering many kinds of resources as services, mainly over the internet. Delivering party is referred to as the service providers, while the users are known as the subscribers. Subscribers pay subscription fees typically on a per-use basis. Cloud computing is broken down in to few different categories based on the type of service provided. SaaS (Software as a Service) is the category of cloud computing in which the main resources available as a service are software applications. PaaS (Platform as a Service) is the category/application of cloud computing in which the service providers deliver a computing platform or a solution stack to their subscribers over the internet. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is the category of cloud computing in which the main resources available as a service are hardware infrastructure. DaaS (Desktop as a Service), which is an emerging –aaS service deals with providing a whole desktop experience over the internet. This is sometimes referred to as desktop virtualization/virtual desktop or hosted desktop.
What is Cluster Computing?
In cluster computing, a collection of stand-alone computers are interconnected to form a single integrated computing resource, which is able to improve performance and availability than using a single computer. Most common uses of cluster computing are load balancing and providing high availability. In a load balancing cluster, a single workload (e.g. a computation) is shared by several computers that are linked together, which work as a single unit. Any of the workloads coming to the system are distributed among the computers in the cluster, such that the work is balanced among them. This improves the performance of the whole system. In High Availability (HA) clusters, redundant nodes are provided to make sure that the service provided by the cluster is always available (even when some system components fail). Clusters can achieve a great improvement in performance when compared to the price.
What is the difference between Cloud Computing and Cluster Computing?
Cloud computing is a technology that delivers many kinds of resources as services, mainly over the internet, while cluster computing focuses on improved performance and availability of a service by interconnecting a collection of stand-alone machines to form a single integrated computing resource. Clusters are mainly used for load balancing and providing high availability, whereas cloud computing focuses on providing services such as software, platforms, etc. But one important thing to note is that cloud computing is built based on a server cluster.