From P2P to Web Services and Grids

provides a comprehensive overview of emerging distributed-systems technologies. It covers peer-to-peer (P2P) systems, which have revolutionized the way we think about distributed computing and the internet, alternative solutions, most notably web services and Grid computing, but also other technologies, such as client/server based systems and distributed-object technologies. A wide range of middleware and application-based technologies are covered, such as Jxta, Jini, Globus, Web services, OGSA, WSRF, SOAP,WSDL, Napster and Gnutella, with emphasis given on the architecture employed and security model chosen. Each technology and its capabilities are analyzed in the context of the degree of centralization or decentralization they employ. A resulting taxonomy is created giving a context in which to consider the most advanced and broad ranging distributed systems available today, and provides an essential reference text for designing new distributed systems.