The Grid: An Enabling Infrastructure for Future E-Business, E-Commerce and E-Government Applications

In this paper we discuss the utilization of grid computing platforms as an enabling infrastructure for e-commerce, e-government and e-business applications. First fundamental concepts related with grid computing are presented, as well as a description of the evolution of grid computing platforms from pioneer projects to third generation systems. Then we identify a set of services that can be provided by grid computing platforms which will be fundamental for future e-commerce, e-business and e-government applications, such as database access and integration and knowledge discovery services. We also discuss why the grid may be the platform of choice for providing such services in a geographically distributed area.