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IntranetsIncreasingly, businesses are relying on intranets to deliver tools such as collaboration, scheduling, customer relationship management tools, and project management to increase the productivity of the organization. An intranet is a private network accessible only to an organization’s staff. Unlike the Internet, an internal intranet provides a wide range of information and services to employees of an organization but these tools and information are unavailable to the public. A company-wide intranet is an important focal point of internal communication and collaboration, and can provide a business with a single starting point to access both internal and external resources. Larger businesses allow users within their intranet to access the public Internet through firewall servers. Because businesses have the ability to screen both incoming and outgoing traffic, they are able to keep the security of the intranet intact. In its simplest form, an intranet is established with the technologies for local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Some of the advantages and benefits a company can realize from establishing a robust intranet are as follows.
ExtranetsIn some cases organizations make the decision to allow external parties such as customers and suppliers to have access to their intranet. When these outside parties are provided access to a subset of the information accessible from an organization’s intranet the intranet becomes an extranet. For example a large construction company may share drawings with architects or inspectors, photographs to their customers and loan documents to their bankers by implementing online applications that allow these external parties to access and even mark-up and make changes to documents. In essence, the company will use an extranet to manage project-related communications. One of the biggest advantages of establishing an extranet is that a business can share large quantities of data using EDI or electronic data interchange. Data such as invoice and order that were traditionally transmitted via paper can now instantly be shared among organizations. Some of the most sophisticated extranets are run by large retailers like Walmart and Target who constantly transmit data via their extranet to vendors and suppliers, ensuring that merchandise arrives when it is needed, where it is needed. Like intranets, extranets have some distinct advantages for the organizations establishing them. Several of these benefits are explained below.
PRactice QuestionWhether a company is managing an intranet or extranet, both systems can raise security issues. With increased access comes an increased opportunity for security breaches. In particular, the security of extranets can be a concern when hosting valuable or proprietary information. Unless sufficient security precautions are taken, data can be breached and altered, without either the sender or the receiver being aware of the interception. The growth in the complexity of networks has increased the possible points of attack, both from within organizations and from outside the company. Fortunately, the means of protecting against hackers have also expanded in line with the technology. Contribute!Did you have an idea for improving this content? We’d love your input. Improve this pageLearn More Which of the following is a Private Corporate Network?An intranet is a private network contained within an enterprise that is used to securely share company information and computing resources among employees. An intranet can also be used for working in groups and teleconferences. Intranets encourage communication within an organization.
Which of the following is a global network that uses universal standards to connect millions of different networks around the world?The internet. A worldwide network that comprises the use of universal standards (like TCP/IP) to inter-link different networks and serves them is the internet.
Which of the following are responsible for developing and operating the information system?CIO. The CIO, or chief information officer, is the head of the information-systems function. This person aligns the plans and operations of the information systems with the strategic goals of the organization.
Which of the following is the best definition for an information system?Combining hardware, software, human power and processes, an information system refers to a network used to collect, store, process, analyze and distribute data.
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