Chapter 25: Network Computing

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OVERVIEW

The idea of using computers in standalone mode is now obsolete. Every computer is connected to a network for resource sharing. Sun Microsystems' slogan "The network is the computer," whether you like it or not, is a reality. This is a very important paradigm shift in the field of computer science—the computer of tomorrow is going to be different from the computer as we know it today. We will see revolutionary changes in computer architecture, operating systems, application software usage, and software development tools.

In this chapter, we will review how computer networking is leading to new computer architecture through network computers. We will peep into some of the emerging applications such as application service provisioning (ASP), workflow automation, supply chain management, dynamic distributed systems, and Web-based learning—all of which use the network-computing paradigm. We will discuss the concept of dynamic distributed systems and how Jini helps in creating dynamic distributed systems.

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