Many of the ideas behind grid computing are not new. For example:

"Shared computing power"
In the 1960s and 1970s, sharing computer power was essential. At that time, computing was dominated by huge mainframe computers that were shared by whole organizations.

"Computing as a utility"
In 1965, the developers of an operating system called Multics (an ancestor of Unix, which is an ancestor of Linux), first suggested the idea that access to computing resources could be like access to water, gas and electricity: something that a client connects to and pays for according to the amount that they use.

Reinventing the wheel?
If these ideas are old ideas, is grid computing just a new way of "reinventing the wheel"? Perhaps, but each time the wheel is reinvented, it takes on a more powerful form, especially since computer processors, memories and networks improve at an exponential rates associated with Moore's law.