Increasing Business Value of Communications Infrastructure: The Case of Internet-based Virtual Private Networks

Abstract

An Internet-based Virtual Private Network (IVPN) is a system and service that enables secure communication within a controlled user group across the Internet public infrastructure. For the last few years, the Internet-based VPN has been available, providing organizational use for meaningful applications. The paper empirically investigates the value of IVPNs in managing communications among distributed business entities. For this, we conducted two case studies based on the information gathered from two companies. Then, a general decision model of the IVPN is proposed, which could be used for the assessment of its strategic value as well as for the design of virtual telecommunication networks at other organizations.