What's the Difference Between an Intranet and the Internet?
Article updated on July 8, 2017
Even today, many businesses and large organizations rely on an intranet to help their employees stay connected.
There’s one major distinction between an intranet and the Internet: The Internet is an open, public space, while an intranet is designed to be a private space. An intranet may be accessible from the Internet, but as a rule it’s protected by a password and accessible only to a company’s employees or other authorized users.
From within a company, an intranet server may respond much more quickly than a typical website. This is because the public Internet is at the mercy of traffic spikes, server breakdowns, and other problems that may slow the network. Within a company, however, users have much more bandwidth and network hardware may be more reliable. This makes it easier to serve high-bandwidth content, such as audio and video, over an intranet.
Can your business benefit from an intranet?
A company intranet can enhance team productivity, foster better internal communication, keep employees up-to-date on the latest policies and procedures, and give everyone one-stop access to important documents.
One note of caution: an intranet can be a powerful business tool—or a serious waste of money. Follow these tips to get the most out of yours: Ten Tips for Building an Effective Intranet.
RELATED: The Elements of a Corporate Intranet
