Electronic transactions are becoming complex and directly couple multiple echelons of customers, vendors, support partners, and downstream suppliers. Our networks must have corresponding levels of flexibility and unboundedness. It will not make any sense for most of us to think in terms of extranets as a category, once they are commonplace. It is a world of internetworking , not intranetworking or extranetworking. An extranet is just another word for nothing left to link.
Categorization is a two edged sword that requires skillful use.
The way the categories of intranet and extranet can be of some use is to think of them not as types of networks, but as types of network applications . The difference will not be one of network technology or network resources, but of application design, usage, and administration, and of the different business needs they address. All rights reserved .