1. A system for automatically responding to a virtual job request from a grid client, comprising: a grid service executing within a grid environment, wherein said grid service facilitates receipt of a job request submitted by a client system for processing a job within said grid environment of a grid provider, wherein said job request specifies at least one criteria required for said grid provider to handle a particular grid job; said grid service for processing said at least one criteria of said job request to determine whether said grid environment comprises a hardware platform class, a software platform class, and a network bandwidth required by said job request; said grid service, responsive to determining that said grid environment comprises said hardware platform class, said software platform class, and said network bandwidth required by said job request, for calculating a total required workload for said job request; said grid service for calculating a total cost for said total required workload for said job request by determining whether said job request describes a type of job request pre-approved for a discount price based on said client system agreeing to submit said type of job request solely to at least one grid provider specified in a grid alliance; and said grid service for automatically returning, to said client system, a response to said job request comprising an identifier for said grid provider and said total cost for said job request, such that said client system is enabled to determine whether to submit said particular grid job to said grid provider.