Peer-to-Peer Continues to Build Enterprise Capabilities

摘要

Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing, which has received most of its media attention from noncommercial Internet applications, is appearing in viable enterprise applications and gaining maturity through widely supported industry working groups. P2P, in its most basic form, is a decentralized computer network that communicates without the need for a dedicated server. As Figure 1 indicates, a number of major players and some innovators have produced a variety of P2P applications aimed at meeting serious business objectives. Whether such applications have a place in your organization depends on how the potential cost savings are evaluated and management's assessment of some of the shortcomings of P2P computing.