Adopting the Grid for Business Purposes: The Main Objectives and the Associated Economic Issues

Grid technology offers numerous opportunities for the players involved. Despite the fact that the academic community has already exploited many of them, there is an evident reluctance from the business community to act likewise. Recent analysis reveals that the problem lies in overcoming certain business barriers rather than technological ones. At this stage understanding the real-life economic issues from a business perspective is deemed as more important than gaining understanding of complex theoretical economical problems, such as those related to accounting or resource sharing mechanisms especially in cases where the players do not exhibit the required technological expertise. This paper is stimulated from interaction with players from the industry and aims to fill this gap. In particular, we identify and evaluate a number of economic issues that should be taken into consideration by industrial players so that their trust and confidence in the adoption of this promising technology be increased.