Updated December 11, 2001
Groove is a suite of P2P capabilities, each of which is
offered by any number of standalone competitors. What makes Groove special is
the interoperability of the applications and its enterprise-friendly security
features.
Groove offers tools for voice and text chat and instant
messaging, integration with Microsoft’s NetMeeting video conferencing
application and MS Office, file sharing and collaborative editing, a shared calendar, and the
ability to work on documents even when offline and have changes collated. It
also features secure communications and role-based access rights management.
Groove 1.0, released in April, improved on the original beta release by including
support for a wider range of firewalls and reduced resource requirements. Version 1.1, released in
July, features an enhanced user interface, enhanced message history, and several shared space
enhancements. Of special interest to network administrators,
Groove Enterprise Network Services (ENS) permit
businesses to centrally manage Groove licenses, security, usage, and components.
There's more on Groove in Part 2 of CTOMentor's peer-to-peer white paper:
Peer-to-Peer Computing and Business Networks:
More Than Meets the Ear, Part 2 – How Are Businesses Using P2P? Part 2 is available at
MindCrossing
for a fee of $50. Part 1 - What is P2P? is available for free at
CTOMentor.
.