First, what is a Computer Grid ?
Wikipedia says it's an emerging computing model that provides the ability to perform higher throughput computing by taking advantage of many networked computers to model a virtual computer architecture that is able to distribute process execution across a parallel infrastructure. Well, everybody has his own definition. The common idea is the comparison with the distribution of electricity. Indeed, the term Grid computing originated in the early 1990s as a metaphor for making computer power as easy to access as an electric power grid: the same way you plug a device on 110 or 220V, you plug your computer on the grid. Behind, a huge quantity of resources (CPUs and memories). Most of the time, it consists in networked computers, geographically distributed and autonomous. And hop, you have access to a phenomenal computing power and a amazing data storage capacity.

That's what happened to the SURA which have obtained new servers that are expected to double the number of CPUs in the heterogeneous environment on the grid to about 1,800, and increase the computing power to about 10 TFLOPS.
A previous article explained that the most powerful computer right now, Blue Gene, reached 360 teraFLOPS. Just to tell that 10 teraFLOPS, it's not so bad.

SURA has spent the past two and a half years building the grid, and is working to develop forecasting models that will allow scientists to accurately predict a storm surge 3 days before it begins to approach. Currently, scientists are accurate in their forecasts about 24 hours before a storm.


Source: Computerworld, two weeks ago.
For those who do not know:
- A central processing unit (CPU), or sometimes simply processor, is the component in a digital computer that interprets instructions and processes data contained in computer programs.
- for the FLOPS, see this article and try to follow ! ;)