| Bandwidth |
Refers to the size and quantity of information 'flowing' to and from your website. Whenever you upload
information to your website or whenever visitors access information from your site, the number of bytes (basic
units of measurements for calculating data or file sizes) transmitted during a period increases.
If your website has lots of visitors, or if people regularly access large files or web-pages on your
site this would require more bandwidth than a site with, for example, fewer visitors or where information was
largely text-based. |
| Extranet |
A private web
based application which may be accessed only by 'invitation'. Different categories of visitors
may be granted different permissions which restrict the information they have access to
or what changes they are allowed to make. Extranets may be used for example to allow your
suppliers or customers to capture and distribute confidential information, order status details,
invoices etc. An extranet can be set up to use secure external hosting services, or to provide
restricted access to web applications on your organisation's local server computers - or a
combination of both. |
| Firewall |
Specialist equipment
or software that prevents access to your computer, private network, server computer or website by
unauthorised users. All inbound and outbound access attempts are intercepted by the firewall, which
blocks any 'transmission' unless it conforms to the security rules defined for your computer or
website. In effect, your systems remain safe and hidden from attack behind the firewall. Only
those with the correct authorisation are allowed past (in either direction). |
| Intranet |
A private web-based
application accessible only to users within an organisation who have been granted the necessary
permissions. Often, an intranet will reside on the organisation's own private network(s), but
could also be hosted on a secure external web-server. |
| Web Server - Dedicated |
A computer used exclusively to host your website or web-application. This option is favoured
for business critical sites or applications where security, performance, up-time, bandwidth or resilience are
paramount. It also avoids the possibility of another website / application running on the same computer
(as with a virtual server) having an adverse impact on your application should it 'crash'. This is a bit like
purchasing an ocean-going yacht - for your sole use. |
| Web Server - Virtual |
A physical computer or network of computers is 'logically partitioned' into a number of 'virtual machines',
one or more of which can be allocated for your use. Following the 'shipping' metaphor, this is similar to
renting a cabin and services on a cruise-liner, where each occupant has their own private space but can share
certain facilities. For the most part, everything runs smoothly. However, on the rare occasions when a majority
of passengers wanted to use the restaurant or pool at the same time, or if everyone wanted to use the staircases
simultaneously, there could be problems. And just as fire in one cabin could have severe consequences for other
passengers, with a virtual server arrangement it is possible (although rare) that a catastrophic failure on one
server could impact on one or more virtual servers sharing the same physical device. |
| ©Ingenuus Ltd. 2004 |