A P2P application is one where a number of independent computers co-operate on a problem or provide a service, all sharing the load. Some observers believe that "true" P2P systems should not have a central co-ordinating server or management console, and that all work is done at the edge of the network. We would express this as: "any application or process that uses a distributed architecture and direct bi-directional communication between autonomous resources …showed first 75 words of 354 total…

…showed last 75 words of 354 total…more generic infrastructure from a middleware provider. Centralized/decentralized applications Applications do not segregate neatly into categories of centralized and decentralized; instead most applications occupy the grey area in between. How centralized or decentralized an application is can be based on three criteria: Network design--the centralised deployment architecture in the application network Usage--the level of centralised control of the usage patterns of users in the application Systems administration--the level of centralised management in the application.