I'm working on a survey paper that focuses on Grid Computing and related technologies for CS425 (Distributed Systems). Grids are essentially a layer of abstraction to the computing platform that allow us to reason about and solve new problems. Combine this abstraction with that of migrating virtual machines and you now have the possibility of developing very flexible and very powerful computing systems.

I haven't delved into Agents much yet, but I suspect that they may play a role in this thought pattern as well.