Q3. What do you know about building e-business applications as an Internet, Extranet, Web Portal, B2B, B2C or Virtual Private Network (VPN)?

Find some examples on the Web.

Answer:

Wikipedia-1 (2009) states that an Intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational systems with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization's internal websites, but often it is a more extensive part of the organization's computer infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration.
As I know, the e-business applications in Intranet can be a billing system in the internal websites or teleconferencing. For building Intranet e-business applications, we have the following steps...

1. Select the platform, for example, windows servers or linux
2. Select the software of the web server, for example, apache or IIS
3. Select a database, for example, MySQL or Oracle
4. Select programming language, for example, PHP or Java
5. Web Design and Planning
6. Implementation and build a prototype
7. User's review. If the users feel the requirement has been met, go to step 9
8. Repeat Step 5 until Users feel the users' requirement has been met
9. Assign internal IP, such as, 192.168.1.1 and internal domain name to the application, namely, http://apps1.teradata.com/index.php. These IP and domain name cannot be accessed through Internet but can be accessed in the LAN.
   

The example of Inranet e-business applications is in the following Diagram-5.





Diagram-5 - IExpense System in Intranet is used to let users input monthly expenses and OT

Wikipedia-2 (2009) states that an Extranet is a private network which uses Internet Protocols, Network Connectivity, and possibly the Public Telecommunication System to securely share part of an organization's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers or other businesses. An extranet can be viewed as part of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company (e.g.: normally over the Internet).
As I know, the e-business applications in Extranet can be https://www.teradata4me.teradata.com. This website - https://www.teradata4me.teradata.com is the Extranet e-business application through Internet accessing the internal email server and HR system. The steps to build the Extranet e-business application are...

1. Select & install the platform, for example, windows servers or linux
2. Select & install the software of the web server, for example, apache or IIS
3. Select & install a database, for example, MySQL or Oracle
4. Select programming language for application development, for example, PHP or Java
5. Web Design and Planning
6. Implementation and build a prototype
7. User's review. If the users feel the requirement has been met, go to step 9
8. Repeat Step 5 until Users feel the users' requirement has been met
9. Apply for the global IP address and the real domain name from ISP for the application. The IP and domain name are namely 202.10.103.111 and www.ncr.com respectively. This IP and domain can be accessed through Internet.
   
10. Connectivity test.
    

Wikipedia-3 (2009) states that a web portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. Apart from the standard search engine feature, web portals offer other services such as e-mail, news, stock prices, information, and entertainment. Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether. An example of a web portal is MSN (www.msn.com), Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) and Google (www.google.com). The steps for building Web Portal can be the same as the steps for building Extranet Applications.

Wikipedia-4 (2009) shows that Business-to-Business (B2B) is a term commonly used to describe commerce transactions between businesses like the one between a manufacturer and a wholesaler or a wholesaler and a retailer, therefore, both the buyer and the seller are business entity. This is unlike business-to-consumers (B2C) which involve a business entity and end consumer, or business-to-government (B2G) which involve a business entity and government. The example for B2B e-business applications is http://www.alibaba.com/. The steps for building B2B e-business applications should be the same as the Extranet's steps, whereas, the step 9 are slightly different. After applying for the global IP address and domain name for the application, there may be some direct leased line connection between manufacturers and wholesalers in some B2B models. As a result, the transactions can be completed faster and securely in the leased line, instead of in Internet.

Wikipedia-5 (2009) explains that Business-to-consumer (B2C, sometimes also called Business-to-Customer) describes activities of businesses serving end consumers with products and/or services. An example of a B2C transaction would be a person buying a pair of shoes from a retailer. This example is available in this link - http://www.shoe-store.net/c/womens.html. The steps for building B2C e-business application are the same as the Extranet's steps.

Wikipedia-6 (2009) explains that A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network in which some of the links between nodes are carried by open connections or virtual circuits in some larger network (e.g., the Internet) as opposed to running across a single private network. The link-Layer protocols of the virtual network are said to be tunneled through the larger network. One common application is secure communications through the public Internet, but a VPN need not have explicit security features, such as authentication or content encryption. VPNs, for example, can be used to separate the traffic of different user communities over an underlying network with strong security features. VPN service providers may offer best-effort performance, or may have a defined service level agreement (SLA) with their VON customers. Generally, a VPN has a topology more complex than point-to-point. A VPN allows computer users to access a network via an IP address other than the one that actually connects their computer to the Internet.
From my experience, VPN is to let users connect to the LAN through Internet. After connecting to VPN, the IP address on the users' computer changes for example from real IP (202.x.x.x) to internal IP (192.168.x.x). This is a virtual circuit through which the customer accesses the Intranet applications anywhere as if they were inside the LAN or Intranet. The steps for building VPN applications are

1. Select the VPN server and install the VPN server software into the platform.
   
2. Install VPN client onto the desktop or laptop.
3. After that, you can access the Intranet Applications.

The example of VPN is in the Diagram-6.



Diagram-6 - VPN clients from http://www.nortel.com


Reference:

1. Wikipedia-1 (2009). "Intranet". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-14th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet
2. Wikipedia-2 (2009). "Extranet". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-14th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extranet
3. Wikipedia-3 (2009). "Web Portal". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-15th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_portal
4. Wikipedia-4 (2009). "Business-to-Business". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-15th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B2B
5. Wikipedia-5 (2009). "Business-to-Consumer". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-15th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business-to-consumer
6. Wikipedia-6 (2009). "Virtual Private Network". Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved Mar-15th-2009 from URL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPN