Newsletter sign-up

View all newsletters

Sign up for our technology specific newsletters.

Enterprise Java

Email Address:

So you want to build an intranet?

Before you implement your internal Web site, think about these 6 key issues

By William Blundon, JavaWorld.com, 12/01/96

The Heisenberg Principle states that it is impossible to know both the velocity and position of an atomic particle. In the microcosm of the subatomic world, making things visible adds energy to the system and alters everything. Looking at something inevitably changes it.

In the macrocosm of the Internet and intranet, celestial bodies move at the speed of light. Things move so rapidly that it seems impossible to know either the velocity or position of anything. Technologies frequently come into existence, only to be swept away by newer ones. Products are cool today and gone tomorrow. Standards are obviated by standards and standards themselves become a meaningless concept.

"God does not play dice with the universe," said Albert Einstein. But the corporate developer declares, "My whole life is a crapshoot."

In many corporations, the intranet is becoming the latest realization of client/server computing. A recent study by IDC for InfoWorld magazine indicates 76 percent of corporations currently have or are planning an intranet. Of these, nearly all will use their intranets to facilitate enterprise-wide communications, while more than 65 percent will use it as a platform for distributed computing.

Sadly, many intranets are evolving with no clear objective, seemingly through a process of random mutation. Take this, add that, shave a little off the sides. An implicit goal of most intranets is to realize the promise of client/server computing: cheap, scalable, easily maintained software for the enterprise. For intranets to succeed they must achieve a real business purpose, have an overall design, and be built with a set of measurable objectives in mind. According to InfoWorld, only 40 percent of IS managers currently consider client/server computing "a worthwhile investment." Without some intelligent thought now, no IS managers will consider their intranet to be a worthwhile investment in the future.

Intranets in 6 easy steps

It's amazing how little design has gone into most corporate intranets. If there is any architecture at all it seems to be of the Rube Goldberg variety: a haphazard assembly of amusing components. Intranets of any size are ultimately software projects, and frequently mission-critical ones. The same design rules that concern any sophisticated software application apply to intranets, with a few enhancements. At the highest level, there are six key design characteristics:

1. Define the mission
2. Select the standards
3. Think big, start small
4. Develop skeptically
5. Measure everything
6. Build on what works

Define the mission

Surprisingly enough, the most ignored aspect of intranet design seems to be elementary questions about its mission or purpose. What business objective does the intranet serve? Is it to be used as a mechanism for information sharing? Is it the company's primary interface to customers? Will it be used to connect to all employees? To vendors? To customers? Will operational systems be built on top of the intranet infrastructure?

While these questions may seem simple, there are some major architectural decisions that derive automatically from them. If the intranet is to be used primarily for communications and information retrieval, it is really an electronic publishing system composed of linked HTML pages. If it is used for operational systems, then it is a platform for distributed computing composed of both programs and documents. If it is used primarily for employees then one security and caching scheme will apply. With Internet access, another strategy works best.

 

Improve efficiency with Visual Studio(r) 2010 Beta 2. - Microsoft

About Us | Advertise | Contact Us | Terms of Service/Privacy

Copyright, 2006-2008 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved.