Chartered Accountant / MBA
944 Points
Joined March 2008
EXTRANET
An Extranet is an extension of an Intranet that makes the latter accessible to outside companies or individuals with or without an Intranet. It is also defined as a collaborative Internet connection with other companies and business partners. Parts of an Intranet are made available to customers or business partners for specific applications. The Extranet is thus an extended Intranet, which isolates business communication from the Internet through secure solutions. Extranets provide the privacy and security of an Intranet while retaining the global reach of the Internet.
The key characteristics of an Extranet is that it extends the Intranet from one location to another across the Internet by securing data flows using cryptography and authorisation procedures, to another Intranet of a business partner. This way, Intranets of business partners, material suppliers, financial services, distributors, customers, etc. are connected to
the Extranets by an agreement between the collaborating parties. The emphasis is on allowing access to authorised groups through strictly controlled mechanisms. This has led to the true proliferation of e-commerce. It is the combination of Intranets with Extranets that has established the virtual corporation paradigm. This business paradigm is turning out to be critical for e-commerce, allowing corporations to take advantage of any market opportunity anywhere, anytime and offering customized services and products.