Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

Building E-Commerce

December 15, 1998

Extranets, on the other hand, are initially viewed in exactly the opposite manner. The definition of an extranet is simply an intranet with open access to a limited and screened set of business partners. In effect, youíre opening parts of your internal network to trusted business associates. As such, itís easy to see that ITís initial inclination is to house such servers where it can keep an eye on them. Often this strategy holds true, but just as often it doesnít. Thatís because the actual applications these servers share are wide open. What if it turns out youíre just sharing files, even if it is a large volume? And even if you are sharing database information, it very often makes sense to create a separate, shared database that then replicates select records to both you and your partners. In effect, extranet developers often create such a closed environment that it makes sense to run off-site.

By opting to have these machines hosted, your development team is quickly given a base application framework within which to work--namely, the hardware, software and operating systems that the hosting service can support. Within that framework, theyíre free to develop whatever they want, while still neatly sidestepping thorny issues like hardware availability, archiving and security.