To segment the grid computing market, two perspectives must be considered: the provider side and the user side:
Provider side
The overall grid market includes several specific markets. These are the Grid middleware market, the grid application market, the utility computing market, and the software as a service (SaaS) market.
Grid middleware is a specific software product that enables the sharing of heterogeneous resources and virtual organizations. It is installed and integrated into the existing infrastructure of the involved company or companies and provides a special layer located between heterogeneous infrastructure and specific user applications. The main grid middleware programs are Globus Toolkit , gLite and UNICORE .
Utility computing is referred to as the provision of grid computing and applications as a service either as an open grid utility or as a hosted solution for a single organization or HE . The major players in the service computing market are Sun Microsystems , IBM and HP .
Grid applications are particular software applications that can utilize grid infrastructure. This is made possible through the use of grid middleware as mentioned above.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is “software that is owned, delivered, and managed remotely by one or more vendors”. ( Gartner 2007) Moreover, SaaS applications are based on a single set of common codes and data definitions. They are used on a one-to-many model, and SaaS uses a Pay As You Go (PAYG) or usage-based subscription model. SaaS providers do not necessarily themselves own the computing resources that are required to run their SaaS. Thus, SaaS providers can utilize the utility marketplace. The utility market provides computing resources to SaaS providers.
User side
For demand-side or user-side companies in the distributed computing market, different segments are essential to their IT deployment strategy. The IT deployment strategy as well as the type of IT investment are important aspects for potential network users and play an important role for network adoption.