JetSend wins slew of support
A protocol floated by Hewlett-Packard that allows a variety of devices to communicate with each other will formally gain support from companies in several corners of the computing industry next week.
The protocol, dubbed JetSend, basically allows a variety of devices such as printers, fax machines, or handheld devices, among others, to intercommunicate without the need to install a set of specific software drivers or to have intervention from a user. JetSend was announced in July and has already won the support of several companies including Microsoft, which plans to integrate the software tool into the Windows operating system.
The latest partners planning to join the effort include Canon, Panasonic, Cisco Systems, Xerox, Ricoh, and Wind River Systems, among a slew of others.
Executives from HP said they were offering the protocol to the industry to allow easier communications between devices. A device with JetSend installed could, for example, send information directly to a PC without the need to configure a set of communications software.
In an intranet setting, for example, a digital camera with work-related photos could communicate directly with a copier to allow copies of the pictures to be made for a presentation.
Jim Hammons, HP's alliance program manager for its information appliance operation, said that Cisco is looking at ways to support JetSend in its security and firewall products to allow devices to communicate through firewalls from an intranet out to the public Internet. The company is also looking at ways to optimize its routers for JetSend traffic.
JetSend is being offered by HP in the form of a technology license for a one-time fee of $15,000.