Intranet & Extranet ; consistency inside, accessibility outside
An intranet is easiest the solution to share documents of any kind (texts, images, videos, databases, calendars, etc...) within a comapny. Through a website like interface, the staff can interact with the local network's data in a consistent way : using an Intranet reduces the dependencies to a specific piece of software and make the data such as listings, address books and agendas easier to retrieve and modify. The process is centralised and doesn't depend on a work station or a client software anymore. Only authorised users can access your Intranet.
Moreover, an Intranet enables collaborative work on your data and let you proceed to advanced search on all your local network document.
Intranet & extranet
An Intranet is a set of internet services (for instance, a web server) dedicated to your local network only, i.e. accessible from your local workstations. Several subnetworks can be interconnected but any area of the Intranet remains invisible from outside. An Intranet uses the standards of the Internet, e.g. a web browser, in order to implement a common information system for a whole organisation or company.
An Extranet An Extranet is an extension of an Intranet, that makes it possible for your remote collaborators or partners to access certain parts or the whole of your Intranet. The Extranet access must be secure, as it grants access to your Intranet to external people via the web.
Data Security and Virtual Private Network
A Virtual Private network lets you communicate remotely with your local network. Transmitting confidential data using the web is considered as quite dangerous, as the web is not a secure place to transfer sensitive data. Building a Virutal Private Network resolves this problem, by implementing advanced technologies in cryptography and authentification: secure tunnels over the Internet are set up and can be accessed only by explicitely authorised users. Confort and Security are the two main assets of a Virtual Private Network.
Version: 1.0 (25 novembre 2006)
