WHAT IS E COMMERCE??

The Internet has created a new economic ecosystem, the e-commerce marketplace, and it has become the virtual main street of the world. Providing a quick and convenient way of exchanging goods and services both regionally and globally, e-commerce has boomed. Today, ecommerce has grown into a huge industry with US online retail generating $175B in revenues in 2007,[1] with consumer-driven (B2C) online transactions impacting industries from travel services to consumer electronics, from books and media distribution to sports & fitness. With more than 70% of Americans using the Internet on a daily basis for private and/or business use and the rest of the world also beginning to catch on, e-commerce's global growth curve is not likely to taper off anytime soon. However, the US recession has taken its toll on online sales. Although early 2008 estimates by Forrester Research were very strong with 2008 revenues upwards of $204B (a 17% growth rate),[2] 2008 holiday sales showed the first decrease in the last 7 years. Research by ComScore shows sales declining by 1% for the first 49 days of the holiday season

E-commerce can be divided into: E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogs, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall" The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters) Business-to-business buying and selling The security of business transactions

Benefits of E-Commerce E-commerce can provide the following benefits over non-electronic commerce: Reduced costs by reducing labour, reduced paper work, reduced errors in keying in data, reduce post costs Reduced time. Shorter lead times for payment and return on investment in advertising, faster delivery of product Flexibility with efficiency. The ability to handle complex situations, product ranges and customer profiles without the situation becoming unmanageable. Improve relationships with trading partners. Improved communication between trading partners leads to enhanced long-term relationships.

Lock in Customers. The closer you are to your customer and the more you work with them to change from normal business practices to best practice e-commerce the harder it is for a competitor to upset your customer relationship. New Markets. The Internet has the potential to expand your business into wider geographical locations.

WHAT ARE VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS????

A virtual private network (VPN) is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructures, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users an access to a central organizational network. VPNs typically require remote users of the network to be authenticated, and often secure data with encryption technologies to prevent disclosure of private information to unauthorized parties. VPNs may serve any network functionality that is found on any network, such as sharing of data and access to network resources, printers, databases, websites, etc. A VPN user typically experiences the central network in a manner that is identical to being connected directly to the central network. VPN technology via the public Internet has replaced the need to requisition and maintain expensive dedicated leased-line telecommunication circuits once typical in wide-area network installations. Virtual private network technology reduces costs because it does not need physical leased lines to connect remote users to an intranet

Conducting Business over the Web CTR's new Virtual Private Networks: Achieving Secure Internet Commerce and Enterprise wide Communications report examines the role of VPNs in corporate networks. The use of the Internet and the Web for e-commerce is a major impetus of the development of VPNs, which offer a way to send private IP data over a public network infrastructure. Remote Access In many cases, remote access to a central intranet for mobile or at-home users is the cost justification for VPNs. Remote access VPNs enable the user to connect to an intranet via a local call to an Internet service provider (ISP) CTR's Virtual Private Networks: Achieving Secure Internet Commerce and Enterprise wide Communications explores the "three A's" - authentication, authorization, and accounting - and specifics regarding products and protocols, such as: Terminal Access Controller Access Control System + (TACACS +) Remote Access Dial-in User Service (RADIUS) Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP)

Firewalls and Virtual Private Networks Firewalls are critical to VPNs. An entire chapter of the report is dedicated to firewall functions and related issues, including firewalls' relationship to intranets, extranets, and the Internet; how firewalls determine employees' use of office PCs; and Java screening, used by firewalls to determine which external downloads are permitted. Various types of firewalls are examined - from simple packet filters to hundred-user proxy servers. Advantages of virtual private networks 1. Reduced Costs

While dedicated circuits and leased lines are usually very reliable, they can be quite expensive. A benefit of a VPN is that it can save an enterprise more than 50% off its data service costs by employing a less costly telecommunications solution, such as ADSL. Some managed VPN service providers can also offer a fully managed, 24/7 monitoring solution to provide additional security and visibility to how the network is being managed. 2. Improved Security

The use of encryption protocols and authentication helps secure the data that is traveling over the VPN channel. If the VPN is properly implemented there should be little or no impact on the networks performance. In fact, the networks performance may actually improve, depending on the data services that are being used. 3. Better Performance Owing to the fact that more high capacity data service options can be used, the bandwidth and efficiency of the network generally increases after a VPN solution is installed. 4. Improved Scalability It is often expensive and time consuming to upgrade a network and add new sites, especially when legacy systems are present, but a VPN can be used to mix legacy systems with new technologies, as additional capacity is required. A VPN is not limited in the type of network technologies and topologies it can support, in fact it can be installed over a variety of network architecture and be configured or reconfigured as the network grows.

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Flexibility and Reliability

Most businesses have no shortage of connection options available to them. The widespread availability of WWAN, DSL and other broadband options gives enterprises multiple ways to securely interconnect network users over a VPN. Another benefit of VPN is that it gives an organization the advantage to use virtually any data service option, as cost and availability dictate. VPNs can also improve the reliability of a companys data services by using data services from several independent carriers and bonding them into one seamless data channel. This removes the dependency on any single network carrier to provide service to any part of the network. 6. Greater Access to Mobile Users The users that benefit the most from VPN facilities are telecommuters. Considering the fact that so many workers now work from home or spend a significant amount of their time on business trips, being able to connect to the companys servers to access emails and company data is a tremendous convenience and productivity advantage. Demerits of virtual private network VPN software creates an encrypted tunnel in which a secure connection can be made between your computer and a VPN server, allowing you access to your office network. . This convenience, however, is not without its drawbacks.

1. High Security Risks

Using a computer not provided by your company to connect to a VPN poses security risks. If your computer doesnt have anti-virus software installed, it may become infected, which in turn could cause a virus outbreak on your office network. Also, if your operating system has vulnerabilities that are not fully patched, they can be exploited not just by malware.
2. Unnecessary Network Traffic VPN connections contribute to total network traffic. Having many VPN connections at the same time can considerably slow down your company network. Also, since VPN connections are made from outside the office, workers can engage in non-work related activities, such as streaming music or videos, downloading from peer-to-peer networks, chatting, or playing online games. 3. Delays and Disconnections VPN connections are not as reliable as a dedicated line. Since they rely on the Internet, the quality of connection suffers. Accessing computers and shared folders, running applications, and copying files are noticeably slower than they would be on a dedicated line.

E commerce on private networks

1. Purpose To identify the content of virtual private network, the suitability of virtual private network for e-commerce transactions, and the economics issue of virtual private network. 2. Design/methodology/approach A range of virtual private network concepts and technologies are identified and compared. The capability, suitability, and pros and cons of adopting virtual private network for electronic commerce are discussed. An economic analysis is used to compare the cost and benefit of adopting virtual private network in organizations. 3. Findings This paper provides information about virtual private network technology. It also indicates the advantages and disadvantages of adopting virtual private network for electronic commerce practices. The economic analysis provides a real example of technology adoption decision making. Strategic implications of adopting virtual private network are detected. 4. Practical implications The economic analysis on adopting virtual private network provides an example of information technology selection decision for the electronic commerce community. 5. Originality/value This paper provides an economic approach to analyzing the decision process for information technology adoption. It suggests that the integration of virtual private network into electronic commerce architecture would perform secure and inexpensive online transactions for adopters of this new technology.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a network that uses the Internet or other network service as its Wide Area Network (WAN) backbone. In a VPN, dial-up connections to remote users and leased line or Frame Relay connections to remote sites are replaced by local connections to an Internet service provider (ISP) or other service provider's point of presence (POP). A VPN allows a private intranet to be securely extended across the Internet or other network service, facilitating secure e-commerce and extranet connections with business partners, suppliers and customers .There are three main types of VPN: Intranet VPNs allow private networks to be extended across the Internet or other public network service in a secure way. Intranet VPNs are sometimes referred to as site-to-site or LAN-to-LAN VPNs. Remote access VPNs allow individual dial-up users to connect to a central site across the Internet or other public network service in a secure way. Remote access VPNs are sometimes referred to as dial VPNs. Extranet VPNs allow secure connections with business partners, suppliers and customers for the purpose of e-commerce. Extranet VPNs are an extension of intranet VPNs with the addition of firewalls to protect the internal network.

Public network virtual private networks Public networks such as ISDN, Frame Relay and ATM can carry mixed data types including voice, video and data. They can also be used to provide VPN services by using B channels, Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVCs) or Switched Virtual Circuits (SVCs) to separate traffic from other users.The traffic shaping capabilities of Frame Relay and ATM can be used to provide different levels of QoS, and because these services are based on usage, there is significant opportunity to reduce telecom costs even further by using bandwidth optimization features. By creating a mesh of Frame Relay connections between sites:- These connections are essentially point-topoint links and are similar in concept to dedicated leased lines. Data is kept separate from other Frame Relay users as each connection uses a separate virtual circuit.