Summary

This chapter has pointed out a number of important issues that need to be addressed when designing and building P2P applications and services:

• Transport selection and routing

• Protocols and service-oriented architectures

• Data formats and payloads

• Metadata definition

• The role of XML

• Integration technologies, Web services, CORBA, Jini and JavaSpaces

• Standards such as JXTA

• Security and new security considerations

• Overall performance and scalability of P2P systems

Peer-to-peer principles map well to some of the problems faced in current systems and the extension of systems into the virtual corporation. However, P2P is not a single architecture, and still requires significant development to mature.

JXTA offers promise to promoting P2P interoperability on a larger scale. XML is beginning to gain acceptance as a general data format, with HTTP the preferred transport.

Armed with this background, let's start the journey of developing solutions to the issues and problems inherent in P2P development.