* Microsoft releases SDK for building corporate P2P applications
Microsoft recently released software tools for Windows XP that are intended to encourage the creation of P2P applications.
The software development kit also offers an update to Windows XP that supports the IPv6 network protocol. The update includes several valuable features for developers of corporate P2P applications. For instance, the software tools offer a “graphing and grouping” element, which efficiently distributes data to a large number of computers across a network. There is also a feature that helps track the identity of network users instead of having to rely on a server-based directory.
The tools, which are available for download from Microsoft’s Web site (see link below), demonstrates an understanding by Microsoft that P2P technology will play an increasingly useful role in business applications. The company has been following the development of P2P applications for some time. Microsoft is a part owner of Groove Networks, which developed some of the first commercial collaboration tools based on file sharing techniques.
It makes sense for Microsoft to encourage the development of P2P applications that can help expand its large market share in desktop software. The P2P features in the Windows XP development kit can also help Microsoft compete with Sun, which has pursued the P2P market with its Jxta file sharing programming framework.
Software developers are already using Jxta to build collaborative applications and link network devices. The new Windows XP development kit will likely encourage software developers to create a greater number of P2P applications useful to a range of users and environments. This will help dispel the myth that P2P tools are only useful for trading music files and hopefully discourage efforts to stamp them out or regulate them out of existence.
