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Short for peer-to-peer, a way of
connecting computers so that each is as important as every other on the
network and can connect to others at will. P2P abandons the notion of
clients or servers on a network, instead allowing information to be
stored in a decentralised manner. One such use is for anonymously
distributing intellectual property such as music and video without the need
to create centralised resources that could be shut down by the property's
litigious owners. Many programs and systems such as gnutella now use
p2p technology for just this purpose, although its proponents claim
much greater things for it than merely replacing napster. P2P has
been hailed as an important development by technology gurus from many
different spheres of activity, as it frees companies and individuals from
the need to create data repositories on expensive servers that are
vulnerable to loss or attack. Instead, information can reside on thousands
of machines simultaneously, making access simpler and back-ups unnecessary.
Despite
the excitement surrounding p2p, few people have been able to suggest a
credible business model for it ,and concerns exist over the security of the
p2p model in sensitive commercial environments. Cynics have suggested that
this is yet more technology in search of a problem, and their case is
strengthened by the fact that several years after its emergence, few p2p
applications exist in the business world. But a 2001 survey by Frost &
Sullivan, a consulting and research firm, suggested that over 6m people
might be using p2p business applications by 2007, creating a market worth
$4.5 billion.
P2P also stands for person-to-person and is usually used in the
context of payments, such as small transactions between individuals' bank
accounts, often conducted via a web-based service such as Paypal but also
via mobile phones and other portable devices. P2P payments have become
popular as an alternative to credit-card-based systems, allowing people to
pay for goods and services online without incurring additional
charges. To date, this technology has been used to pay for everything from
pizzas to Porsches. |
