Peering Into the 'Network Hive'
What's the next big warp in computing? We think it's the network hive, the distributed net that shares its tasks. And we think it's well under way, in the form of Sun's Jini, Microsoft's Millennium, the Salutation Consortium's specifications and the IETF's Service Location Protocol (SLP).

In a package of articles posted at Network Computing Online (www.networkcomputing.com/919/919f1.html), we detail how Sun's Jini overlaps with, and differs from, work conducted in Microsoft's labs. We also outline the efforts taken to mesh these architectures with technology that discovers and records information about network devices from the Salutation Consortium and IETF--technology that is already available in some parts of the world.

These new architectures have enormous ramifications for businesses: shared processing on machines across a network; shared disk drives that plug into the network; laptop access to printers, scanners or programs without desktop installation hassles; and technology that automates the production of distributed applications and their performance on the network.

In the coming years, these embryonic technologies will mature, and will likely compete for dominance. But their links to critical architectural decisions being made by businesses today are already evident.