A system for providing an enterprise deployment topology comprising: a data center having a deployment topology which includes a DMZ-secured public zone, a DMZ-secured application tier, and an Intranet-accessible data tier; wherein the DMZ-secured application tier includes a plurality of application hosts and applications provided according to the deployment topology; wherein the applications at the data center are configured to communicate with one another, within the data center, using HTTP and internal URLs without SSL, to process requests from Intranet-based or Internet-based users outside the data center, whereby the internal URLs used within the data center are not exposed or accessible outside of the data center to the Intranet-based or Internet-based users; and an administrative subnet located within the DMZ-secured public zone which includes one or more provider clients, and wherein the administrative subnet is configured to be accessible to a thick-client workstation located outside of the data center via a VPN and socket connection to communicate requests from the thick-client workstation to the application hosts and applications; wherein the VPN and socket connection are configured to allow SSL access by the thick client workstation to the administrative subnet; and whereby the applications are also adapted to be accessed by Intranet-based or Internet-based users outside the data center via virtual hosts and external URLs, which can utilize SSL wherein different portions or aspects of the applications' functionalities are configured to be made available to Intranet-based users, and/or to Internet-based users, depending on the particular requirements of each application, and the particular needs of the enterprise. a data center having a deployment topology which includes a DMZ-secured public zone, a DMZ-secured application tier, and an Intranet-accessible data tier; wherein the DMZ-secured application tier includes a plurality of application hosts and applications provided according to the deployment topology; wherein the applications at the data center are configured to communicate with one another, within the data center, using HTTP and internal URLs without SSL, to process requests from Intranet-based or Internet-based users outside the data center, whereby the internal URLs used within the data center are not exposed or accessible outside of the data center to the Intranet-based or Internet-based users; and an administrative subnet located within the DMZ-secured public zone which includes one or more provider clients, and wherein the administrative subnet is configured to be accessible to a thick-client workstation located outside of the data center via a VPN and socket connection to communicate requests from the thick-client workstation to the application hosts and applications; wherein the VPN and socket connection are configured to allow SSL access by the thick client workstation to the administrative subnet; and whereby the applications are also adapted to be accessed by Intranet-based or Internet-based users outside the data center via virtual hosts and external URLs, which can utilize SSL wherein different portions or aspects of the applications' functionalities are configured to be made available to Intranet-based users, and/or to Internet-based users, depending on the particular requirements of each application, and the particular needs of the enterprise.