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The Next Page for P2P
Not all P2P applications work like Gnutella. NextPage's NXT 3 platform enables a federation of servers to act as peers.
NextPage's P2P solution for the enterprise brings together content from peer servers and makes such content available to users as if it were in one location. Each site maintains its own content with indexing and search services. Content and services are shared with peer servers acting in a federation. Users can securely search, navigate and categorize content from all the peer servers using HTTPS (Secure HTTP). NXT 3 Content Servers provide an XML environment to personalize content navigation and delivery and help manage content.
NXT 3 Content Syndicator brings together distributed content using a LiveSyndication protocol, which lets users search all the information available in the content network and enables real-time access. Content is maintained in its native format by the owner and delivered to a requester through Content Adapters, which provide a consistent view of information regardless of format.
Other P2P solutions need to follow NextPage's example to make inroads into the enterprise. Centralized servers control access to indexes and content directories. This speeds indexing services, which translates into a more rapid response time. Users can search for corporate information, then connect to the target server that stores it. In effect, the NextPage model acts as a P2P network in client/server mode. NextPage also sets a good example in the area of secure access and authentication. It supports HTTP and integrates with LDAP, NDS and Microsoft Active Directory for secure access to content.
In the Groove
P2P collaboration tools create secure, shared workspaces in the enterprise. You can engage in online meetings and chat (voice and text) with colleagues and share information and applications in real time. For example, Groove Networks supplies a peer-based architecture that creates such workspaces. Workspaces let users communicate using text and streaming media and share files and collaborate on document production and editing. Users can create a secure environment without the aid of computer administrators and invite other Groove users to conduct business. All the information created in the Groove space is stored on each of the participating computers. Also, any changes to documents in the workspace are updated on each of the computers. If someone invited to the space is offline during the session, Groove updates that computer the next time it reconnects to the space.
Groove 1.3 supports all Microsoft Windows platforms (XP, 2000, ME, 98, 95) but lacks support for Linux and Unix. It also encrypts all content in the shared space and traffic among the members or participants using 192-bit encryption. Groove says it plans to make a Relay Server and Enterprise Management Server available this year. The Relay Server is an enterprise version of Groove Network's relay service. It will let IT provide Groove behind the firewall. The Enterprise Management Server will provide centralized services to administer and deploy Groove in the enterprise -- but only if you're with a Microsoft shop. For example, it will support LDAP through Active Directory to create Groove identities throughout the enterprise.
Other P2P players in this arena include NextPage's Matrix, which builds on the NXT 3 platform and integrates its distributed content network with collaborative workspaces for projects and business transactions. Like Groove, Matrix lets groups interact online to plan and generate new ideas. But Matrix adds access to distributed content from peer servers that could be inside and outside of the enterprise.
P2P collaboration tools need to distinguish themselves from other collaboration software suites to make any headway in the enterprise. Or they need to partner with them. P2P tools already enhance portals with IM and could provide access to distributed content throughout the enterprise and on remote desktops. But portal technology is off to a good start in the enterprise. Many enterprises already provide portals for employees and possibly customers and partners.
ERoom Technology's digital workplace offers collaboration through instant messaging, e-mail archives, discussion lists and more. And Microsoft Exchange Server supports instant messaging, chat, discussion lists, calendar management and document sharing. P2P tools need to incorporate document-management functions or partner with document-management solution providers to raise the functionality of their workspaces. And ideally the workspace would be focused on a particular business process.
For example, specific implementations of a workspace can focus on commercial transactions and B2B. Netrana's SpotDealmaker Trading Platform aims at linking surplus goods to buyers with collaboration tools, letting the deal makers walk through a series of business rules online using the same workspace.
Security Concerns
To accomplish these goals, P2P will have to overcome some problems. As peers engage more work and take on more services, they are open to the same attacks as the servers in the data center. Like humans, when computers communicate directly, they are more apt to contract viruses. P2P networks are infamous for skirting security gates and centralized antivirus measures. P2P changes network traffic patterns, too.
And, because the peers are on the fringe of the network, more bandwidth is required in an area that is typically bandwidth-poor.
Sean Doherty is a technology editor based at our Syracuse University Real-World Labs®. A former project manager and IT engineer at Syracuse University, he helped develop the infrastructure behind a campuswide, centrally supported applications and storage system. Send your comments on this article to him at sdoherty@nwc.com.
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