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BOINC VS PiCloud

Compare BOINC VS PiCloud and see what are their differences

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BOINC logo BOINC

BOINC is an open-source software platform for computing using volunteered resources

PiCloud logo PiCloud

PiCloud gives every scientist, developer, and engineer a supercomputer at their fingertips.
  • BOINC Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-28
  • PiCloud Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-12-28

BOINC features and specs

  • Distributed Computing
    BOINC allows users to contribute their computer's idle resources to scientific research projects, pooling computational power from thousands of machines.
  • Accessibility
    Anyone with a computer can participate, making it easy for individuals to support scientific research without requiring specialized knowledge or equipment.
  • Variety of Projects
    BOINC supports a wide range of projects in various fields, including astronomy, medicine, climate science, and biology, allowing participants to choose projects that align with their interests.
  • Open Source
    BOINC is open source, which means its code can be reviewed, modified, and improved by the community, ensuring transparency and fostering innovation.
  • Community Engagement
    BOINC has an active community of users and developers who collaborate, share insights, and support each other, creating a vibrant ecosystem.
  • Resource Management
    BOINC includes features for managing how much computational power is used, allowing users to set preferences to avoid impacting the performance of their primary tasks.

Possible disadvantages of BOINC

  • Energy Consumption
    Running BOINC can increase a computer’s energy usage, potentially leading to higher electricity bills and a larger carbon footprint.
  • Hardware Wear
    Continuous use of computational resources can lead to greater wear and tear on hardware components, potentially reducing the lifespan of the computer.
  • Security Risks
    While BOINC itself is secure, participants must ensure their own systems are secure from vulnerabilities that could be exploited when sharing computational resources.
  • Technical Complexity
    Setting up and maintaining BOINC might be challenging for non-technical users, especially if troubleshooting issues arises.
  • Resource Conflict
    When BOINC is running, it might compete for system resources with other applications, which could slow down the primary tasks a user is performing.
  • Variable Project Quality
    Not all projects on BOINC are of equal scientific value or impact, so participants might need to research projects to ensure they are contributing to reputable and effective research.

PiCloud features and specs

  • Scalability
    PiCloud allows users to easily scale their computing resources up or down based on demand, ensuring efficient use of resources and cost-effectiveness.
  • Ease of Use
    The platform provides a simple interface and APIs that make it straightforward for developers to integrate cloud-based computing into their applications without extensive overhead.
  • Cost Efficiency
    With PiCloud, users only pay for the resources they use, which can lead to significant cost savings compared to maintaining a large in-house infrastructure.
  • Fast Deployment
    PiCloud offers rapid deployment of computing resources, allowing for quick adaptation to changing workloads and business needs.
  • Maintenance Free
    The service provider handles all infrastructure maintenance, reducing the operational burden on the user's IT staff.

Possible disadvantages of PiCloud

  • Vendor Lock-In
    Using PiCloud may lead to dependency on their services, making it difficult to switch providers or move workloads back in-house.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Relying on a third-party service for computing raises potential issues about data privacy and confidentiality, particularly for sensitive information.
  • Performance Variability
    Performance may fluctuate depending on network conditions and the shared nature of cloud resources, affecting consistency.
  • Limited Customization
    Users may face limitations in configuring and customizing virtual environments compared to an on-premises setup, which can affect specific use-case implementations.
  • Internet Dependency
    Access to PiCloud services requires a stable internet connection, which could be problematic in areas with unreliable internet services.

Analysis of BOINC

Overall verdict

  • Yes, BOINC is considered a good platform for both volunteers who want to contribute to scientific research and researchers in need of computational resources. Its open-source nature, ease of use, and wide range of supported projects make it a reputable choice in the realm of volunteer computing.

Why this product is good

  • BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is regarded as good because it allows volunteers to contribute their unused computer processing power to scientific research projects. It's a cost-effective and efficient way for scientists to perform large-scale computations, as it harnesses the power of distributed computing. The platform supports a variety of research areas, including climate change, medicine, and astrophysics, offering users the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and discovery in these fields.

Recommended for

  • Individuals interested in supporting scientific research purposes using their spare computer processing power.
  • Researchers and scientists who require additional computational resources for large-scale simulations and data analysis.
  • Tech enthusiasts and hobbyists who want to contribute to worthwhile scientific causes and be part of a global computing network.

BOINC videos

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GridCoin & BOINC - Can you make money?

PiCloud videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to BOINC and PiCloud)

BOINC

PiCloud

IT Automation
85 85%
IT Automation
15% 15
Marketing Platform
86 86%
Marketing Platform
14% 14
Cloud Computing
100 100%
Cloud Computing
0% 0
OS & Utilities
0 0%
OS & Utilities
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using BOINC and PiCloud. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, BOINC seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 105 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

BOINC mentions (105)

  • Bitcoin Block 840000
    The only way I can foresee a cryptocoin actually holding value is if spending the coin meant spending processing cycles and RAM doing things like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volunteer_computing_projects But in more general sense, less like https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ and more like AWS... It's the only way to have value, actually holding computing power in a distributed network. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Folding@Home: We empower anyone to become a citizen scientist
    Or alternatively: Boinc[1], which has a bunch of different projects. [1] https://boinc.berkeley.edu/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Distributed Inference and Fine-Tuning of Large Language Models over the Internet
    Made me think of Gridcoin and BOINC https://boinc.berkeley.edu/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Have you ever donated your computing power with BOINC? Take 5 minutes to fill out the 2023 BOINC Census!
    The BOINC Census is back for another year! BOINC is an open source software and network for volunteer computing. People can use it do donate their CPU/GPU power to various scientific research areas like cancer, drug discovery, mapping the galaxy, and more. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What should I do with my leftover bandwidth?
    A few years back, I was in a similar situation and found BOINC(https://boinc.berkeley.edu/) to be a great way to contribute. It's a platform that lets you support various scientific research projects by sharing your computational power and bandwidth. However, it's worth noting that BOINC might tends to be more CPU/GPU intensive rather than bandwidth-heavy. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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PiCloud mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of PiCloud yet. Tracking of PiCloud recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing BOINC and PiCloud, you can also consider the following products

Charity Engine - Charity Engine takes enormous, expensive computing jobs and chops them into 1000s of small pieces...

Apache Mesos - Apache Mesos abstracts resources away from machines, enabling fault-tolerant and elastic distributed systems to easily be built and run effectively.

JPPF - The open source grid computing solution.

GridRepublic - Use GridRepublic, or Grid Republic, to join and manage participation in boinc volunteer distributed grid utility computing projects. Help us to create the world's largest top supercomputer. GridRepublic is a BOINC account manager.

DIET by Avalon - DIET is a software for grid-computing.

PelicanHPC - PelicanHPC is an iso-hybrid (CD or USB) image that let's you set up a high performance...

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