What is Intranet? IT Infrastructure for Your Small Business
What is intranet? is a question that often gets asked by those new to office admin staff. Intranet is a company’s internal IT infrastructure or a restricted access network. The main differences behind what is intranet vs the actual Internet is that the use, including content and data transmitted occurs internally within an organization.
Office administration personnel need to be familiar with how it works, while some will take the initiative to learn how to problem solve when and if a problem occurs that needs tweaking. Not long after asking the question what is intranet, you will learn that setting up your organization’s IT infrastructure can be a complicated task, but with the help of some easy to use software programs a person can get the hang of it. After all, what is intranet? It is supposed to be an easy to use, easy to operate, in-house network that make access to your company business information, email, documents, spreadsheets, company information, current projects, software programs, drivers and updates—at least that’s the plan.
In answer to the question what is intranet, one of the first steps in setting up your intranet is to determine the scope of what you want to achieve with your business’s IT infrastructure. Therefore, a more appropriate question would be, “What is my intranet?” Think about how you want your intranet to augment the productivity of your organization, either through making information more easily accessible, or providing an avenue through which people can communicate or video conference with one another more easily.
Secondly, you’ll need to build your network. A server needs to be set up which requires server software. You can use programs like Apache, Microsoft IIS or some of the Google Apps for business. Then depending on whether you use a Wi-Fi connection, or cables, you’ll need to purchase the necessary hardware you’ll need. Much of what you end up purchasing will be based on the size of your business and its needs.
As you have probably noted by now, although ‘what is intranet’ is not nearly as difficult as you expected it to be, it can still be an involved, complicated and time consuming process to set up your company’s IT infrastructure. As the creator and administrator of your company’s server, you’ll want to add the necessary web features your business needs. Those may include essentials such as an employee directory, client management functions, project and document management, group calendar, company news, discussion forum, and chat/video conferencing. For more information on ‘What is intranet?’ and going about setting up your company’s internal website, there’s a review editorial here that takes you through 8 different options for setting up your intranet using mostly open source software.
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