Patent ID: 8271537

Claim:
A grid computing system for performing analytical calculations on data stored in a distributed database system, the grid computing system comprising: a plurality of grid computing nodes including a control node and a plurality of worker nodes, each node comprising: a processor for executing database management software (DBMS) and for executing a grid-enabled software component, local buffer memory accessible by the grid-enabled software component, and local storage media accessible to the DBMS for storing data; wherein the grid-enabled software component is configured to perform the analytical calculations on a portion of the data stored by the database management system; the grid-enabled software component at the control node being configured to: invoke the DBMS at the control node to cause the DBMS at a plurality of the worker nodes to make available a portion of the data to the grid-enabled software component local to its node; instruct the grid-enabled software components at the plurality of worker nodes to perform an analytical calculation on the received data and to send the results of the data analysis to the grid-enabled software component at the control node; and assemble the results of the data analysis performed by the grid-enabled software components at the plurality of worker nodes.