Cloud computing is said to be the user-friendly version of grid computing. We know grid computing brought together the high performance computers, the middleware, and strategies to utilize hundreds and thousands of computers linked by advanced networks. We know this took place in universities, research labs and medical schools around the world over many years.

The Open Grid Forum, a group working on standards in grid computing has been meeting since 1998. Out of nowhere comes cloud computing. Ebay, Amazon, and Google showed even a casual technologist what the power of grid computing was, but it was easy. It wasn't about the standards or the middleware, it was the results and the ease of use.

A Grid Today special feature story by Wolfgang Gentzsch captures the differences between cloud computing and grid computing. He suggests that grid has been got caught in the trough and to look up at the next innovation, cloud computing as the progression of grid computing to the next level - the commercial level.