Which of the following describes extranet?

An extranet is a controlled private network allowing customers, partners, vendors, suppliers and other businesses to gain information, typically about a specific company or educational institution, and do so without granting access to the organization's entire network. An extranet is often a private part of a website. It is restricted to select users through user IDs, passwords and other authentication mechanisms on a login page.

An extranet may be viewed as an intranet mapped onto the public Internet or onto some other private network.

Advantages of extranets include:

• The ability to exchange large volumes of data using electronic data interchange
• Sharing product data or catalogs with business partners
• Joint company collaboration and training
• Sharing services such as online banking applications among affiliated banks

Disadvantages are expensive implementation and maintenance if hosted internally and the potential for compromised sensitive or proprietary information. Alternately, it may be hosted by an application service provider.

An extranet is a private network similar to an intranet, but typically open to external parties, such as business partners, suppliers, key customers, etc. The main purpose of an extranet is to allow users to exchange data and applications, and share information.

Reasons to use an extranet

An extranet can be a useful tool for the following business needs:

• using online ordering, electronic order tracking and inventory management internally or externally, with selected partners
• working flexibly to meet the demands of larger companies, by adopting new technologies and enabling the exchange of business information and transactions
• facilitating a cheap and efficient way for businesses to connect with their trading partners and suppliers, and allowing them access to the information they need 24 hours a day
• automating the trading tasks between you and your trading partners, in order to strengthen business relationships and integrate your business firmly within their supply chain

An extranet can also be used by staff working remotely, eg those in sales or customer support, or home workers.

Read about the benefits of extranets and find out how to build a secure extranet.

Key issues to consider

Bear in mind that once you make parts of your business data available to trading partners, they will expect it to be:

• available
• up to date
• secure at all times

Availability and security are key factorsin the success of an extranet. You should define the group of your extranet users clearly and protect access by rigorous identification routines and security features.

You may also require significant resources to keep the content of the extranet accurate and up to date. This might involve staff training and using CMS to manage intranets and extranets.

An extranet is a controlled private network that allows access to partners, vendors and suppliers or an authorized set of customers – normally to a subset of the information accessible from an organization's intranet. An extranet is similar to a DMZ in that it provides access to needed services for authorized parties, without granting access to an organization's entire network.

Historically, the term was occasionally also used in the sense of two organizations sharing their internal networks over a virtual private network (VPN).[1]

Enterprise applications[edit]

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, several industries started to use the term 'extranet' to describe centralized repositories of shared data (and supporting applications) made accessible via the web only to authorized members of particular work groups - for example, geographically dispersed, multi-company project teams. Some applications are offered on a software as a service (SaaS) basis.

For example, in the construction industry, project teams may access a project extranet to share drawings, photographs and documents, and use online applications to mark-up and make comments and to manage and report on project-related communications. In 2003 in the United Kingdom, several of the leading vendors formed the Network for Construction Collaboration Technology Providers (NCCTP) to promote the technologies and to establish data exchange standards between the different data systems. The same type of construction-focused technologies have also been developed in the United States, Australia and mainland Europe.[2]

Advantages[edit]

• Exchange large volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
• Share product catalogs exclusively with trade partners
• Collaborate with other companies on joint development efforts
• Jointly develop and use training programs with other companies
• Provide or access services provided by one company to a group of other companies, such as an online banking application managed by one company on behalf of affiliated banks
• improved efficiency: since the customers are satisfied with the information provided it can be an advantage for the organization where they will get more customers which increases the efficiency.

Disadvantages[edit]

• Extranets can be expensive to implement and maintain within an organization (e.g., hardware, software, employee training costs), if hosted internally rather than by an application service provider.
• Security of extranets can be a concern when hosting valuable or proprietary information.
• Partner and customer access may result in contentious or controversial debates

See also[edit]

• LAN
• List of collaborative software
• Wide area network

References[edit]

1. ^ See RFC 4364
2. ^ Wilkinson, Paul (2005). Construction Collaboration Technologies: The Extranet Evolution. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-35859-0.

Further reading[edit]

• Callaghan, J. (2002), Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management and the Struggle for Power, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-98743-8
• Stambro, Robert and Svartbo, Erik (2002), Extranet Use in Supply Chain Management, University of Technology
• Wilkinson, Paul (2005). Collaboration Technologies: The Extranet Evolution. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-35859-0.

Which statement best describes an extranet?

What is the meaning for extranet?

What is extranet in communication?

Which of the following best describe an intranet?