From P2P to Web Services and Grids: Peers in a Client/Server World

This book gives a comprehensive and short review of peer-to-peer technologies. This book is in a sense unique because: a) It is "short". That's not usual in books about the same subject. b) Gives implementation details (i.e. code) So, I recommend it in order to go away from the theoretical discussions... However, do not hesitate to check the web and try some test examples in python or perl [...]

Taylor's book is a good update to Oram's Peer to Peer book from 2000. There has been much activity in the subsequent years and Taylor provides a useful summary. JXTA and Jini get an analysis. Perhaps not as successful as Sun might have wished, as least for Jini. More generally, all the major p2p networks are described. With their different topologies. Napster, of course, gets a mention, as the first major p2p network. Then we see Web Services, about which much has been speculated. And the Grid and Globus, for massive scientific computing. The biggest omission is BitTorrent, which was only getting started when the book was being drafted. But this is now the biggest worry of all the p2p networks, for the movie companies.

This book, "From P2P to Web Services and Grids", provides an up-to-date and comprehensive tour of the new distributed computing technologies arising out of the convergence of computing and communications. Readers with a telecommunications background will find many of the concepts surprisingly familiar whilst those coming from a background in enterprise information systems will discover new approaches for solving today's enterprise application integration problems. The text, whilst aimed at and suitable for an undergraduate study module, is supplemented by an extensive list of references to more detailed sources for those that need the extra detail. Chapter by chapter the author, who is clearly knowledgeable, explains peer-to-peer systems, Grids, Web Services, service-oriented architectures and distributed object technologies. This is done both in general terms and with reference to specific examples of the technologies in action: Gnutella, Napster, Jini, Jxta, Globus, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI. The final chapter covers the latest developments in Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSF) and Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF). As well as exploring specific technologies, there are two general purpose chapters on scalability and security of distributed systems in general.

I recently read Ian Taylor's book, "From P2P to Web Services and Grids, Peers in a Client/Server World". I became acquainted with Ian when I read his online classes note on P2P and distributed systems several months back. Later, Ian asked me to review his book. This new book is based on those class notes. The book includes new material and has expanded discussion on several technologies. For example, the book has added chapters on Globus / OGSA, Freenet, and web services, and gives extended looks on scalability and security. The book has four parts, I - Distributed Environments, II - Middleware, Applications and Supporting Technologies, III - Middleware Deployment, and IV- From Web Services to Future Grids. The Part I functions as an orientation. It talks about what are P2P, web services, and grid computing technologies. It covers the concept, the history, the social impact, and the applications. The Part II explores several well-known P2P and distributed computing technologies, e.g. Jini, Gnutella, Freenet, and JXTA. It also gives in-depth look at several important concerns, e.g. scalability and security. The chapter on security is well written and clearly explains what are cryptography, hashing, and digital signature. Additionally, the chapter on Freenet clearly explains how Freenet works and organizes content. The author has effectively used analogy to describe key concepts, "virtual organization", storing and addressing contents, network topology, etc. The Part III includes chapters on several demo applications. Due to my busy schedule, I did not have time to download and build those software applications. The Part IV is a section dedicated to Grid technologies, particularly on Globus. This section expands the discussion from chapter 4. As the editor-in-chief of P2P Journal, I have found reading this book was well worth my time. It is concise and clear. The book uses unambiguous language to cover some abstract and difficult to grasp concepts. It can be a useful book for people who want to understand those technologies, whether as a general purpose or as a handbook.

I feel that this book was a good read and really makes a lot of complex issues simple and easy to understand. The writing style of the author was very approachable. The book is pretty small (and paperback) which makes it easy to carry around, which actually inspired me to read the whole thing, unlike a bunch of longer books I have on my shelf. The book focuses on decentralized networks, web services and p2p. It does a good job of showing how these are all interrelated and ties them in nicely to the new technologies of the Grid (I work in Grid computing, so this was very interesting for me to see). I definately recommend this book to anyone working in this field, or just people who are curious about p2p, web services, or the Grid.