Network managers who think intranets are a panacea for the problems of corporate-applications deployment may be surprised when they begin their rollouts. In the 1980s, we learned how valuable and easy it was to create departmental networks. But once we tried to integrate these LANs on an enterprisewide scale, we discovered that what first appeared easy was, in fact, nearly impossible. But that lesson seems lost on those who are jumping on the intranet bandwagon today.
Intranets bring many issues to bear on corporate development.
Few people have much experience building or running corporatewide Web sites, and people haven't been hired specifically to do so in the past. Many organizations fail to factor in the costs of operating a Web site or intranet beyond its initial creation, and your WAN may not be capable of effectively handling the additional traffic loads. Then there is the inevitable issue of ownership. Worse, the technology is so new that there are few tools to manage content. I'm not dismissing the idea of intranet systems or servers.