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Book Reviews

The Tech Hotlist: Grid Computing and P2P

Milan Lathia • Gridalogy and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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

By Ian J. Taylor

275 pages

US$64.95

Springer, 2004

ISBN: 1-852-33869-5

P2P (peer-to-peer) and grid computing are hot new technologies that have been

touted by the media and are popular in academic and industrial circles. From P2P

to Web Services and Grids: Peers in a Client Server World provides a

comprehensive, updated review of the new and improved distributed computing

technology formed by the union of computing and communications.

As Ian J. Taylor points out, he wrote the book primarily for university students.

It’s written like a textbook, and very well, too. You need a computing foundation

and some familiarity with grid computing to grasp all the concepts. The book does,

however, give a good overview of the technology before delving too deeply into

the details. Each chapter builds the technical know-how needed for the next one.

Taylor is a professor at the University of Cardiff. The book is based largely on his

online notes on P2P and distributed systems, which have been valuable to many

students, including me. In addition, the book explains in detail recent technologies

such as JXTA, Jini, Globus, and Freenet. Taylor also gives security, a rising </P>

concern with grid computing, the attention it deserves. He provides additional

references for each chapter if you need more detail.

The book has four parts: Distributed Environments; Middleware, Applications, and

Supporting Technologies; Middleware Deployment; and From Web Services to

Future Grids. The distributed-environments section works as an orientation and an

introduction to many grid-computing-related concepts. It talks about P2P (peer-topeer),

Web services, and grid-computing technologies. It covers the concept of

distributed computing and P2P, their history, the technology, and academic and

industrial applications. The grid-computing chapter is well written, with good

information on the Globus Toolkit and the grid architecture. This section sets the

tone of the book by introducing and explaining the basic principles of distributed

computing—the backbone of P2P and grid computing.

The second section explores several well-known P2P and distributed computing

technologies such as Jini and JXTA. Taylor uses code snippets to simplify many

complex concepts used in these technologies. He also introduces signatures,

encryption, and other related technologies. The analogical and simplified

explanations of key concepts such as virtual organization, network topology, and

addressing are well done. Additionally, this section details Gnutella and Freenet,

two of the most popular P2P file-sharing mechanisms. Although neither Taylor nor

I support illegal file sharing, I do appreciate the system’s architecture and design.

His explanation does justice to file-sharing software concepts and technology. This

section also looks in depth at concerns such as scalability and security. Not many

authors have written in detail about security for grid computing.

The third section includes chapters on several demo applications and code

examples for using different technologies in grid computing. You can download

and run the sample code from the companion Web site. The section details and

demonstrates the power of Jini, JXTA, and related Web services. </P>

The final section covers various grid technologies. Services based on the Grid

Computing Architecture and OGSA (Open Grid Services Architecture) reintroduce

the notion of "state to a Web service.” P2P and grid computing are becoming

extremely popular and require much effort in terms of standardization. The section

also brings up issues such as the drawbacks of OGSI (Open Grid Services

Infrastructure).

The book is an easy read and makes many complex concepts easy to

understand. Its small size encouraged me to bring it along during business trips.

The book explains and correlates many P2P and grid-related concepts. Being in

the grid-computing business, I own many books on the subject, and From P2P to

Web Services and Grids: Peers in a Client Server World is a valuable addition to

my collection.

The book is a must for all grid-computing professionals and a good read for

enthusiasts and those who are curious about the technologies.

Milan Lathia is the president of Gridalogy, a grid software services and research company, and a

master’s student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Contact him at

milan@gridalogy.com.

Related Links

l DS Online's Peer-to-Peer Community

l DS Online's Grid Computing Community

l "A Loosely Coupled Vision for Computational Grids"

l "A Scalable P2P Platform for the Knowledge Grid" </P>

Cite this article:

Milan Lathia, "The Tech Hotlist: Grid Computing and P2P," review of From P2P to Web Services and

Grids: Peers in a Client Server World by Ian J. Taylor, IEEE Distributed Systems Online, vol. 6, no. 11,

2005. </P>

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