Feature Story
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Beyond file sharing.Project JXTA shows the real business benefits of peer-to-peer technology. 6.May.03--When people talk about peer-to-peer (P2P) computing, it's likely they're talking about sharing music or using an instant messaging service. Those applications do represent successful uses of the technology, but that narrow view overlooks the true potential and big benefits of peer-to-peer technology. Peer-to-peer technology allows devices on a network to talk with each on an equal basis. It's about making resources--a document, source code, or even an actual computing device itself--available across a network. We're starting to see commercial applications that leverage the open source Project JXTA peer-to-peer technology, an initiative led by Sun. These applications go beyond basic file sharing and messaging to deliver real business benefits in collaboration, content delivery, and service distribution. With the recent announcement of JXTA Release 2.0, companies get an enterprise-ready P2P platform with greater scalability and performance for their applications. "Today's key driver for peer-to-peer applications," says Juan Carlos Soto, manager, Advanced Development for Sun's Project JXTA, "is what is happening at the edge of the network. Edge devices are powerful machines that can provide useful resources back into the network, which demands a more symmetrical networking relationship."
Open, Standards-Based ProtocolsSun's Project JXTA is a set of open, generalized peer-to-peer protocols that allow any device on a network--from sensors to super servers--to connect, communicate, and collaborate with any other device on a network, whether a LAN or the Internet. JXTA technology enables companies to focus development resources in areas where they can create and deploy new solutions for their enterprises and their customers--not inventing or reinventing a P2P infrastructure. What's more, Project JXTA is one of the leading open source, standards-based, P2P platforms available. Developers receive royalty free, state-of-the-art technology in a very supportive community. The jxta.org community has established strong developer momentum with a community of more than 13,000 members. JXTA technology recently surpassed the one millionth download milestone. "JXTA technology gives developers a powerful tool to solve business and customer problems," Soto says. "Because it's an open community, developers can access all the technology and documentation to collaborate and create innovative distributed services and applications." End-to-End Peer-to-PeerReal enterprises are getting real bottom-line benefits from JXTA technology by creating end-to-end, P2P applications for their businesses. Take, for example, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). NACS has adopted JXTA technology to build and deploy a low-cost, open network in convenience stores to connect edge devices from many manufacturers, such as fuel level sensors, gasoline pumps, point-of-sale terminals, car wash controllers--with no single point of failure. At the other end of the spectrum is the National Association of Realtors. They're using JXTA technology to connect their members' commercial real estate database servers so users can query local or remote listings for the most accurate, up-to-the minute information, without requiring the member databases to forfeit their autonomy or be forced to fund a centrally managed database. The U.S. Coast Guard is planning to use a JXTA technology solution called VistaPoint from VistaPortal for its Waterway Information Network (WIN). WIN will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of managing maritime information in the Marine Transportation System. Like the National Association of Realtors' solution, the proposed WIN system will allow government agencies, private industry, and public users to get access to navigation safety information through a P2P network without a centralized information hub. Two other recent examples of JXTA technology are Momentum by InView Software and IAM-Developing by Internet Access Methods. Momentum, built for the Solaris Operating System, Linux, and Microsoft Windows workstations, lets users share and collaborate on drawings, flowcharts, network diagrams, organization charts, and timelines, for example. JXTA technology serves as the P2P communications infrastructure layer allowing collaboration. IAM-Developing lets developers work on the same piece of source code and see each other's modifications in real time. "These applications show just how JXTA technology works," Soto says. "It's not about eliminating servers or centralization. It's about enabling or simplifying access to resources wherever they are on the a network." Are You Ready for JXTA?What are the enterprise sweet spots for JXTA? There are the obvious, such as messaging and resource sharing, but as the deployments previously mentioned prove, collaboration, content delivery, and decentralization are ripe for P2P applications. JXTA technology provides developers with tools to build network applications that thrive in highly dynamic environments. "There's not so much one classic, killer application," Soto says. "But there are killer characteristics that make an application suitable for JXTA technology." These characteristics include situations:
The JXTA Release 2.0 adds new features that enhance scalability and performance. All are aimed at making JXTA technology more and more enterprise ready. "JXTA greatly reduces the complexity required to build and deploy P2P solutions and services," says Soto. "Businesses benefit greatly as a result: improved collaboration and sharing, greater security and resilience because there's no single point of failure, up-to-the-second data currency, better control. And that means lower costs and faster time to market for improved competitiveness." Make Your MoveWe encourage you to take a look at Project JXTA to see if it can help you create and deliver better products within your organization or for your customers. If you thought that P2P was only for high school kids sharing music files, think again. | |||||||||||
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