Peer-to-peer transfer technology will be widely used by businesses within the next three years, according to independent think-tank Organisation and Technology Research (OTR).
The group has pinpointed the increasing adoption of the technology in a report published last week identifying IT trends that will have an impact over the next few years.
OTR believes peer-to-peer tools will move from the consumer sector and into the corporate arena. It predicts that the tools will be used to redistribute files and data on a network, rather than individual systems downloading direct from central servers.
David Rance, a consultant with OTR, says peer-to-peer has risen as a consumer technology, in forms such as BitTorrent and Kazaa, and businesses are now beginning to identify its potential benefits.
