Two of the hottest technologies at the moment are Grid computing and Web services, but are the two compatible? In this article, Martin C. Brown looks at how the two systems are actually very compatible and describes the benefits of using Web services in grid applications.To determine whether Grid computing and Web services are compatible with each other, we need to look at how Grid computing works and whether we can really resolve a typical grid system down into a number of relatively discrete units. The Grid computing architecture relies on fairly basic principles, sending simple requests between clients and servers. Web services rely on processing simple requests from a client to a server.Just in case you don’t see how this can fit into your existing grid structure, this article looks at the two most common grid systems: the request and dispatch architectures. Request systems rely on clients to ask for work, while dispatch systems rely on the broker to supply the clients directly with work. The two systems have different issues when used with Web services, which will be examined as well.Read the full article.