Make the P2P Leap
With Toadnode
By Michael S. Marmor
The decreasing cost of high speed Internet connections and the availability of powerful network-ready personal computers has enabled the development of global peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Using the P2P model, computers can communicate and share files and other resources directly, rather than through a centralized server. Each participating computer—called a host or a node—is responsible for relaying data from other participating computers. This eliminates the need for traditional servers and forms a fault-tolerant network that's not dependent on any central point.
Small-scale P2P networks aren't new. They've been used for years in local-area workgroups made popular by operating systems from Apple and Microsoft. More recently, global peer-to-peer networks have gained a lot of press coverage because they can be used to search for and share files across large webs of computers. Yet these types of networks are currently in their infancy. The existing protocols and software for the technology are limited and will need additional functionality and security before mainstream businesses and consumers begin to adopt them.
Toadnode, where I am chief technologist, is just one of many companies working on the next generation of P2P software that will provide solutions to these problems. Toadnode and its affiliate, SmartPeer, create software products for the global P2P environment.
Toadnode is a P2P client dedicated to consumer and enterprise data sharing. Toadnode uses a modular, pluggable model designed to encourage the development of advanced protocols and functionality.<>
