Reliable and secure communications infrastructure for virtual enterprises

Abstract

The virtual enterprise paradigm is the key for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enter into the business-to-business electronic commerce. Nevertheless SMEs require a reliable infrastructure connecting transparently to the global network of enterprises their IT application tools implementing the internal business processes. Such infrastructure is deeply grounded on a communication infrastructure that might offer operative and management mechanisms able to cope with the complexity of the underlying heterogeneous computational and communication available resources. Beyond information communication security (privacy, integrity, and authentication), an operating reliable infrastructure to manage information communication is required. The SME business cannot support the great vulnerability to failures presented by a distributed system made of heterogeneous technologies. The PRODNET Communication Infrastructure aims to offer beyond a secure and high availability communication infrastructure, a set of features to cope with such distribution and heterogeneity implemented by a flexible communication management module. Considering that SMEs do not have their own IT support, the PRODNET Communication Infrastructure also offers remote management/maintenance capabilities.