ARE CORPORATE INTRANETS THE NEXT HOT INTERNET MARKET SEGMENT?

As information systems professionals struggle to transform today's tidal wave of newly available Internet technologies into useful business tools, they are faced with the three major challenges of developing, deploying and managing enterprise-wide mission-critical applications and Web sites within their corporate intranets.

Intranets are private corporate networks that take advantage of the same basic properties as the Internet. By using common Internet protocols, or core technologies, such as TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML and Java, in conjunction with their own secure mission-critical business applications, corporations can facilitate communication, information distribution and project collaboration across their business landscapes.

A new Report from the Network Strategy Service of Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. predicts the emergence of a next-generation Intranet, enhanced by five standards-based services: directory, e-mail, file, print, and network management. This Full Service Intranet will displace today's proprietary network operating systems, such as Novell's NetWare, Microsoft's NT, and Banyan's Vines.

“We're staking our claim on the business side of the Internet explosion,” said Scott McNealy, chairman, president and CEO of Sun Microsystems, Inc. “The action is in corporate intranets, where you will see the real boom in business-to-business and business-to-consumer networked commerce. Intranets are driving the adoption of the Internet, and Sun is fast becoming the clear choice for intranet professionals who need real products right now.”

Forrester research supports McNealy’s move. “Internet software spending will overtake client/server spending in many accounts,” according to Eric Brown, senior analyst with Forrester's Software Strategy Service. “On the user side, companies will be on an Internet shopping spree, updating their ‘dead’ Web sites and rolling out full Internet Computing applications built around Java.”

Mountain View, Calif. workstation maker Sun recently introduced a set of hardware, software and support tools and services designed to help businesses develop, deploy and manage corporate intranets.

• Java WorkShop, 1.0 an integrated Java development environment;

• Internet WorkShop, a client/server development environment for building business applications;

• Netra 3.0 Internet Servers, a secure Web publishing server product family for businesses;

• Joe, the Java-based communications technology lets corporations deploy integrated Java applications with their business applications over their corporate intranets;

• Solstice Internet Mail, an Internet-ready e-mail product that provides e-mail access using corporate intranets, regardless of system platform, mail application or geographic location;

• SunScreen SPF-100 G, a "stealth-like" (invisible to network) intranet security that can be exported and deployed worldwide;

• Solstice Firewall-1 2.0, network security software allowing organizations to set up and secure individual departments or workgroups within their corporate intranets; and

• SunIntegration Internet Practice, a suite of worldwide consulting and system integration services designed to help businesses implement integrated intranet solutions.

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