Intranets - Extranets - What Are Intranets and What Is Needed to Establish an Intranet?

Intranets/Extranets

By: Alexander Phillips

What are Intranets and what is needed to establish an intranet?

Intranets are new kinds of internal networks that are used for more private communications, connectivity among work groups and larger organizations. They tend to resemble the architecture of a closed-circuit video network as opposed to the Internet which is more like broadcasting in terms of its reach. Moreover, Intranets enable information sharing that empowers employees who might otherwise be left "out of the loop". Also, Because of their limited geographic range, Intranets offer more bandwidth, frequently Ethernet's 10Kbps or better. As a result of this bandwidth and the "closed loop" structure, more advanced networking features such as video and multimedia, as well as more technological control, are possible. Here are a few examples of how intranets work, some companies use Intranets to offer corporate services such as benefits programs and other kinds of corporate communications. Also, a company can specify that a specific web browser and even a specific version of that browser (licensed by the company) be used on its network. This enables a consistent and more dependable user experience than is possible on the Internet. Even Internet related services such as Pointcast can be customized for a particular company and its Intranet.

If the intranet is to be created and managed by the school, expertise in networking, web publishing, browser and client server technology are all required. However, an external service provider can host your intranet, enabling the school to have an intranet without having to set it up and manage it. Examples of hosted intranet services include Schoolmaster.net and CommunityZero.com. Web-browsing software must be available on every computer that is to access the intranet and a web server is needed to serve intranet pages and resources to machines on the network.

Pre-packaged intranet 'thin' servers (also referred to as intranet or web 'toasters') can provide easy-to-implement intranet solutions for organizations that do not have the expertise required for sophisticated server configuration tasks. Examples of this kind of device include the Sun Cobalt Qube server appliance, Equiinet's NetPilot server and intY's Access Server. Similarly, intranet software products are also available and examples of these include 3 Tier Technology's Pasidium 2000 software, Active Web Solutions' intextra software, Intrasuite's intranet software and MindBridge's IntraSmart.

Firewalls are necessary to protect internal information from the outside world. These are hardware/software combinations that allow people from inside an intranet to access data on the internet but prevent intruders from accessing private intranet data and resources.

Implementing an intranet requires careful planning and it is important to obtain the full support and co-operation of staff, with regular consultation and appropriate training. In addition to initial set-up considerations, on-going staff time and resources will be required to maintain both the technology infrastructure and the content of the intranet. As with any website, if content is not kept up to date, users will cease to regard it as a useful tool.

Therefore, there are lists of things the managers will need to determine:

* Who will be involved in updating the intranet?

* How it will be updated?

* When and how will content to be added be agreed?

* Who will take ultimate responsibility?

A clearly defined vision and structure of roles and responsibilities are essential for the creation of an effective intranet. However, the training of key personnel to support the project may incur further costs and, in addition to the time and resources that are implicit in its initial creation, ongoing maintenance and management costs should not be ignored (becta).

What are the current management issues of creating a school intranet?

An effective intranet can contribute to the overall effectiveness of the organization it serves, but when considering the development of a school intranet, senior managers should ask:

* Why do we want an intranet?

* What do we want it to achieve?

Managing an intranet is not the same as managing a network. An intranet should be regarded as a means for communicating and sharing knowledge, and its development should be tied into the school's information strategy.

Intranets can make information and resources accessible throughout an institution in powerful and flexible ways that were not possible before. However, this requires vision and commitment to implement, and all users must have easy and regular access to the intranet if this is to be achieved. There are three broad aspects of an intranet which require management: the technology infrastructure, the content and the administration.

The hardware, software and infrastructure necessary to support the operation of the intranet must be maintained and supported effectively. You will need to decide between a self-built intranet and an off-the-shelf intranet solution. Depending upon the type of system chosen, there may be initial start-up costs associated with the installation of additional hardware and software to run the intranet effectively. The usability and upgrade potential of current computer stock may have additional cost implications. Intranet content must be maintained and managed. This involves the supervision of content, whether it's generated internally or imported and the establishment of an appropriate house style for the creation of web pages. The administrative aspects of an intranet include the specification and supervision of procedures and policies related to the day-to-day running of the intranet. For example, the addresses the formulation and implementation of security systems, user privileges and permissions, firewall strategies and user support. In a typical intranet, a local area network (LAN) is built, and a device called a proxy server is established to offer one-way (outgoing) access to the Internet by acting as a third party between you and the sites you want to visit. Proxy servers sometimes called firewalls, trust those on the local network side and do not trust anybody outside on the Internet,