5 Surprising Facts about P2P Miami FL

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Originally published at Internet.com

If you're put off by P2P's history and certain that large-scale video distribution with P2P wouldn't work for your company, then these five facts might surprise you. P2P technology holds more promise for video than you might realize.

We spoke with Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent, to get the surprising truth about P2P (peer-to-peer) for video distribution. 1. P2P is Already the Biggest Thing Going
Think getting consumer buy-in would be difficult? Think again. Peer-to-peer transmissions already counts for over 65 percent of all Internet traffic, says Navin, and over 50 percent of Internet traffic is from BitTorrent. You may not have realized it, but Internet phone company Skype uses P2P when routing calls.

2. Large-Scale P2P Video Won't Require New Applications
When using P2P to download DRM-protected content, customers can work with the P2P clients they already have. No special tools are needed. That's because customers will download licenses from a central server, while the video exchanged via P2P content will be protected and will need that license to play. Customers won't need a new P2P client that can handle DRM content, because the license will arrive directly from a central location.

3. P2P Will Save You Money
Because P2P relies on peers to distribute much of the content, you'll send fewer bits and save on bandwidth charges.

4. P2P Is Compatible with Flash Video
Flash Video, today's most popular format for streaming video, will soon work with P2P apps. BitTorrent currently has a solution in beta testing that it plans to unveil later this year, Navin says, in conjunction with one of the big names in video sharing.

5. P2P Is Now Friendlier to Networks
P2P large-scale video solutions will work even on networks that ban P2P traffic, since the system first looks to peers for the needed content, and then downloads it from a central server if peers aren't available. So even if P2P traffic is blocked, the application will still be able to initiate standard HTTP downloads.

For more on P2P for enterprise, see "How P2P Is Going Legit for Video."