What is Peer-to-Peer Technology?

Definition: Peer-to-Peer or P2P technology is a distributed application architecture which essentially aims at easing the communication process between peers, by dividing and sharing their workload with each other. This technology makes a portion of the resources available, such as processor power, network bandwidth, disk storage and so on, to all the participants in that particular network, without the need for a central server or a stable host. These networks work on equal peer nodes which simultaneously function both as clients and servers on the rest of the nodes on that particular network. This concept, hence, differs from the traditional client-server model, where all communication is controlled by a central server. Today, P2P technology endeavors to go beyond providing resources just for peers engaged in similar tasks. The focus today is to bring shared resources to diverse peers, especially those in the virtual and mobile communities, thereby enabling them to become more productive than individual users, while also being mutually beneficial to all the participants